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Crohn's disease is a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by inflammation that affects the entire tube of the digestive system. It could indeed affect any part of the digestive system, but the most common locations are terminal ileum and colon. Usual symptoms include chronic diarrhea, sometimes with traces of blood and mucus, spastic abdominal pain, increased body temperature, lack of appetite and loss of body weight. The cause has not been discovered yet, but it is assumed that some kind of autoimmune disorder is responsible for this condition. Inadequate or wrong treatment could result in complications such as fistulas, abscesses, strictures, obstructions and bleeding from colon. Therefore, the patients are forced to seek surgical help. Also, secondary inflammation of numerous other organs.
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Ulcerous colitis is a chronic inflammatory disease that exclusively affects colon. The changes are found on superficial parts of the mucosa and are most commonly localized on the left part of colon (sigmoid colon and rectum), however any part of colon could be affected and changes usually spread with the progression of disease to all parts of colon. Ulcers that cause diarrhea with traces of blood and mucus, increased body temperature and painful spasms, characterize inflammatory changes. Increased is morbidity from colon carcinoma in the patients who have the diseases longer than 10 years. In some of the patients, other autoimmune disturbances could also occur and complications other than on colon, such as iritis, uveitis, episcleritis, migratory polyarthritis, sacroileitis, erythema nodosum, thickening of finger tips, etc.
- Pseudomembranous colitis is a disease that is most often, although not exclusively, caused by bacteria Clostridium difficile. Harmless intestinal bacteria maintain normal balance, preventing pathogenic bacteria from invading the intestine. However, many antibiotics that are taken orally will disturb the intestinal flora, allowing at the same time to Clostridium difficile to invade the intestinal tube and by releasing two toxins to cause strong inflammation of colon with pathological changes that are called pseudomembranes. The disease could be mild in nature but also escalate to a life threatening toxic colitis, with symptoms such as diarrhea, with or without blood, spastic pains in the abdomen and increased body temperature. In severe form of the disease, dehydration, toxic megacolon, shock will occur. The most severe forms of the disease will have fatal outcome.
In intestinal inflammatory diseases, HBOT lessens pain, lessens inflammatory reaction, lowers number of stools, diminishes quantity of blood and mucus, lessens edema of the intestinal wall, enhances healing of damaged mucosa, induces Crohn's disease into periods of long remissions and stable course, heals ulcerous colitis, lessens need for surgical interventions or delays them, and ameliorates immune status of patients.