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Review
. 2012 Dec;10(12):1315-1325.e4.
doi: 10.1016/j.cgh.2012.07.006. Epub 2012 Jul 24.

Strategies for the care of adults hospitalized for active ulcerative colitis

Suresh Pola  1 , Derek Patel, Sonia Ramamoorthy, Elisabeth McLemore, Marianne Fahmy, Jesus Rivera-Nieves, John T Chang, Elisabeth Evans, Michael Docherty, Mark Talamini, William J Sandborn
Affiliations
Review

Strategies for the care of adults hospitalized for active ulcerative colitis

Suresh Pola et al. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2012 Dec.

Abstract

Ulcerative colitis is a chronic inflammatory disease of the colon; as many as 25% of patients with this disease require hospitalization. The goals of hospitalization are to assess disease severity, exclude infection, administer rapidly acting and highly effective medication regimens, and determine response. During hospitalization, patients should be given venous thromboembolism prophylaxis and monitored for the development of toxic megacolon. Patients who do not respond to intravenous corticosteroids should be considered for rescue therapy with infliximab or cyclosporine. Patients who are refractory to medical therapies or who develop toxic megacolon should be evaluated promptly for colectomy. Patients who do respond to medical therapies should be discharged on an appropriate maintenance regimen when they meet discharge criteria. We review practical evidence-based management principles and propose a day-by-day algorithm for managing patients hospitalized for ulcerative colitis.

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Conflict of interest statement

For the remaining authors, no conflicts of interest exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Proposed algorithm for managing ulcerative colitis in the hospital (13,15,63)
*Exact number of acceptable bowel movements varies patient to patient but needs to be while tolerating a full diet and manageable for that patient.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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