Best practices in the diagnosis and treatment of inflammatory bowel disease

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a complex disease that is costly both in terms of medical costs and quality of life. The major goal of treating IBD is to induce and maintain remission. An evolving goal is to completely heal the intestinal mucosa. There are a variety of effective agents for IBD. Better use of these agents is occurring with the use of top-down therapy and the targeting of those patients most likely to have complications for aggressive therapy.