Is ulcerative colitis serious? What are the dangers?

Many patients do not fully understand the diagnosis of ulcerative colitis and know little about the harmfulness of this disease. In fact, ulcerative colitis itself is just an inflammation, but many patients ignore it and do not cooperate with active treatment, which eventually leads to the deterioration of ulcerative colitis and lesions, and then they truly begin to realize its seriousness.

1. Is ulcerative colitis serious?

Colitis is mainly characterized by ulcers, and the inflammation is mainly located in the mucosal layer. Most cases of colitis have a slow onset, often with repeated attacks and gradual worsening, and a few cases with an acute onset. The course of the disease can be divided into continuous, chronic, or a chronic course alternating with acute phases, and occasionally acute outbreaks. Therefore, the treatment of colitis also takes a long time. Most patients do not take colitis seriously and are unwilling to actively seek treatment. Colitis is a chronic disease, and its serious consequence is the development into colon cancer. Therefore, patients should attach great importance to it and actively seek treatment to avoid delaying the disease.

What are the dangers of ulcerative colitis?

1. Diarrhea: mucus and bloody stools. Patients with mild colitis may experience diarrhea 3-4 times a day, while patients with severe cases may experience diarrhea dozens of times a day or diarrhea and constipation may occur alternately.

2. Abdominal pain: Patients with mild colitis have no abdominal pain or only abdominal discomfort. Generally, there is mild to moderate abdominal pain, which is paroxysmal pain in the left lower abdomen or lower abdomen, involving the whole abdomen with pain followed by the urge to defecate and relief after defecation.

3. Constipation: Colitis patients have constipation and defecate once every 4-5 days. The feces are like sheep dung, and they cannot defecate without taking laxatives.

4. Other symptoms: abdominal distension, weight loss, fatigue, bowel sounds, insomnia, frequent dreams, fear of cold, etc.

5. Common complications of colitis include:

6. Large amounts of blood in the stool: Blood in the stool is one of the main clinical manifestations of colitis, and the amount of blood in the stool is also an indicator of the severity of the disease.

7. Intestinal stenosis: It often occurs in patients with colitis with extensive lesions and a disease course of more than 5-25 years. The location is mostly in the left colon, sigmoid colon or rectum. It is generally asymptomatic clinically. In severe cases, it can cause intestinal obstruction. When intestinal stenosis occurs in colitis, be alert to tumors and distinguish between benign and malignant.

8. Intestinal perforation: It is mostly a complication of toxic intestinal dilatation, but it may also be severe. It often occurs in the left colon. The use of corticosteroids is considered to be a risk factor for intestinal perforation.

9. Toxic intestinal dilatation: This is a serious complication of colitis, which often occurs in patients with pancolitis. The mortality rate can be as high as 44%. The clinical manifestations are rapid deterioration of the disease, obvious symptoms of poisoning, accompanied by diarrhea, abdominal tenderness and rebound pain, weakened or disappeared bowel sounds, increased white blood cell count, and easy complications of intestinal perforation.

Colon cancer: About 5% of colitis patients develop cancer, including those who develop the disease in childhood and have a history of more than 10 years.