Acute colitis is an acute inflammatory lesion of the mucous tissues of the colon, developing as a result of endogenous, pharmacological, toxic or infectious factors.
About the disease
Acute colitis is called colonic pathology, which is characterized by inflammatory lesions of the mucous, accompanied by functional disorders.
Similar pathology is more often detected in 15-40-year-olds and 60-80-year-old patients.
Pathology is equally common in patients of either sex. Only representatives of the white race are more prone to colitis than African-Americans or Asians. Annually in European countries more than five hundred thousand cases of acute inflammation of the colon are registered.
Also patients experience severe dehydration and hyperthermia. Most pathology is successfully cured, but if the therapy was not chosen correctly or the patient did not receive treatment at all, the inflammatory processes are chronic, which complicates the course and further cure of patients.
Reasons for
To say for certain that the cause of acute colitis in a particular case can not be any gastroenterologist, since the onset of inflammatory processes in the intestinal mucosa may be affected by several pathogenic factors simultaneously.
One of the leading factors of the disease are:
- Pathogenic microorganisms like shigella or salmonella.
- Influence of viruses or pathogenic environment in the intestine like E. coli and various toxic infections.
- Non-specific pathogens such as streptococci or staphylococci can also provoke pathology. Infectious agents enter the intestines of patients with unwashed fruits or vegetables contaminated with water. When the pathogen penetrates the mucous intestinal tissues, causing an inflammatory process. In addition, pathogens in the process of vital activity produce toxins, which provokes the development of intoxication of an organometallic scale.
- Provokes colitis of acute form and antibiotic therapy, as well as uncontrolled intake of laxatives, etc.
- Older patients suffer from colitis due to vascular atherosclerosis, against which colonic ischemia develops.
- It is possible to develop an inflammatory process due to radiation exposure, as well as against intoxication with chemicals or food allergies.
Also the cause of the pathology may be poisoning or malnutrition, food allergies or bacterial infections. In some cases, it is not possible to establish a reliable cause of the pathology.
Symptoms of acute colitis of the intestine
The manifestations of colitis can not be ignored, because they cause the patient a lot of uncomfortable sensations.
The attack of acute colitis provokes severe spasms, as the inflamed mucosa swells and thickens. The patient feels an increase in the pain syndrome, which is spastic or traumatic in acute colitis.
Other patients are also concerned about other signs of colonic inflammation:
- Often rumbling in the abdomen is troubling;
- Missing appetite;
- General malaise worries;
- Constantly torments diarrhea in the form of a liquid stool with blood-mucous impurities;
- In severe forms of pathology, the stool is watery in nature and observed up to 20 times a day;
- Often disturbed by false defecation urges;
- Hyperthermia occurs up to 38 ° C or more;
- Severe forms of acute colitis are accompanied by bloating, and with intense diarrhea, the stomach is drawn in, there are common intoxication symptoms, and dry and grayish plaque appears on the tongue;
- When palpating the bowel, soreness and rumbling are disturbed;
- Sometimes, intestinal walls show hemorrhages, erosive and ulcerative lesions.
Diagnosis of the disease
The paramount task of the doctor is to collect an anamnesis, which helps to determine the cause of the development of acute colitis.
Specialist will feel the stomach, and if there is rumbling and soreness on the left side of the peritoneum, then, most likely, the patient has acute colitis. To confirm the diagnosis, laboratory and instrumental techniques are used.
The most informative hardware method for diagnosing colitis is an endoscopic examination that helps to detect swelling of the mucous tissues and their hyperemia.
If acute colitis occurs in severe form, then endoscopic examination on the intestinal walls reveals erosion, pus deposits and ulcerative lesions.
Among the laboratory methods, the most commonly used and informative is a general analysis of feces and urine. When microscopic examination of fecal matter, specialists pay attention to the presence of blood and mucous fractions.
The stool in acute colitis is watery in nature, it shows leukocyte cells, which directly indicates the development of bacterial inflammation.
To clarify the microorganism that caused intestinal damage, microbiological diagnosis of stool is carried out, which also makes it possible to detect the sensitivity of the microorganism to the action of the antibiotic.
Treatment of
Acute colitis therapy should be constructed step by step in accordance with the severity of the pathological process.
Colitis is characterized by diarrhea, which causes severe dehydration, accompanied by a loss of water, which adversely affects all internal structures.
To replenish lost fluid, patients need to drink plenty of water or aqueous solutions with the addition of sugar and salt.
You can also drink lightly brewed tea and mineral water. Solutions can be ingested by a natural route or by infusion, in accordance with the severity of the pathological process.
- Patients with colitis are shown taking absorbent drugs, because pathology arises from bacterial activity that provokes poisoning of the body, and this group of drugs eliminates symptomatic manifestations and reduces inflammation.
- If the disease is mild, then you can fix the situation with the use of activated charcoal and preparations of enveloping action like Almagel or Phosphalugel.
- Sometimes the reception of enzyme preparations like Pancreatin or Festal, which normalize digestive activity and facilitate the patient's condition, is shown.
- Mild forms of acute colitis last for a couple of days, but if the pathology occurs in more serious forms, then the treatment will take a little longer, up to several weeks.
Pathology usually does not require hospitalization, because it is successfully treated in a domestic setting, but in difficult cases the patient is still sent to the hospital. It is necessary urgently to address to the expert if there were signs of an acute colitis, differently there is a risk of development of complications and even a lethal outcome.
Diet
Important in the treatment of acute colitis is the patient's compliance with the dietary nutrition program. Correctly formulated diet helps reduce the load on the intestines and reduces painful spasms, which positively affects the patient's condition.
It is necessary to completely exclude sharp and acidic dishes, fried and smoked products, milk and sour-milk products, raw vegetable and fruit crops. And at the beginning of the disease, you must stop eating any food for at least two days.
The basis of the diet should be a product like lean fish or meat, buckwheat, manna, oatmeal or rice cereals. Also useful are jelly, broth of dog rose, tea on herbs.
All dishes should be cooked by cooking or steaming, and they should be eaten in a grated form in small portions 4-5 times a day.
Recommended for colitis infusions of watermelon crusts, chemist's chamomile, sage or gold centipede. Useful procedures for enema chamomile broth.
Complications of
If the pathology is not treated properly, the risk of complications increases.
On the background of acute colitis, complications such as:
- Intestine is narrowing due to the formation of scarring on its damaged walls;
- Sepsis - a systemic inflammatory lesion that develops throughout the body against the background of infiltration into the bloodstream of infectious agents;
- Bleeding intestinal structures;
- Peritonitis - an inflammatory process in the cavity of the peritoneum and on its membranes, develops against a background of local necrosis of intestinal tissues;
- Pielit - Inflammation lesions localized in the renal pelvis;
- Hepatic abscess - when the background of colitis develops purulent inflammation of the intestinal tissues.
Avoiding complications can only be a timely appeal to the gastroenterologist or proctologist. Only competent and timely therapy will help quickly get rid of the inflammatory process and avoid the development of complicating the course of the disease.
Prevention
Any pathology is much easier to prevent than to treat later, and acute colitis is no exception. To avoid inflammatory bowel disease, you must follow the principles of proper nutrition and personal hygiene.
Before eating, you should definitely wash your hands, as well as any fruits or vegetables. Fish and meat must be heat treated and water boiled. It is necessary to prevent infections of a viral origin, which quite often cause acute intestinal inflammation.
Forecasts for recovery are quite favorable, if therapy is prescribed in a timely manner, then pathological manifestations disappear within a couple of days.