Table 1.

The difference between Crohn’s and Ulcerative colitis.

Items/Type	Crohn’s (CD)	Ulcerative colitis (UC)
Causes	Inappropriate response of the immune system	Immune reaction, genetics
Risk factors	Smoking, environmental factors	Age, ethnicity
Lesion site	Anywhere between the mouth and anus	Rectum, colon
Symptoms	Abdominal cramping, diarrhoea, bloody stool, mucous stool, loss of appetite, weight loss, tiredness and mouth ulcers.	Diarrhoea, abdominal, anal pain, weight loss, tiredness, fatigue, rectal ulcers, bleeding, fevers, chills, anorexia and nausea
Complications	Nutritional deficiencies, fistulas, toxic, megacolon, narrowing of the intestines	Bleeding, toxic colitis, blood clotting, bowel cancer
Characteristics	Discontinuous lesions	Continuous lesions
Treatment	Lifestyle changes, medication and surgery	Self-care, medications and surgery
Medication	5-aminosalicylic acids, corticosteroids, immune system modulators, tumor necrosis factor-alpha antagonists, antibiotics, antidiarrhoeal medications	aminosalicylic acids, corticosteroids, biological therapies, antibiotics, probiotics and iron supplements
Surgery	It is used for fistulas, strictures (narrowing of the gut), large abscesses or other therapies have failed.	Medications is ineffective, precancerous or cancerous changes in the bowels, severe symptoms
Canceration	Low	High
Prognosis	Some people can be symptom-free for decades, while others may experience symptoms every few months.	There is a greater risk than normal of developing bowel cancer, usually after 7-10 years with ulcerative colitis.