title: Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The incidence of inflammatory bowel disease is increasing in the pediatric population worldwide.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  There is paucity of high quality scientific data regarding pediatric inflammatory bowel disease. Most of the guidelines are offshoots of work done in adults, which have been adapted over time to diagnose and treat pediatric patients. This is in part related to the small numbers in pediatric inflammatory bowel disease and less extensive collaboration for multicentric trials both nationally and internationally.
  
  
  METHODS
  A literature search was performed using electronic databases i.e. Pubmed and OVID, using keywords: pediatric, inflammatory bowel disease, Crohns disease, Ulcerative colitis, epidemiology and guidelines. This article amalgamates the broad principles of diagnosing and managing a child with suspected inflammatory bowel disease.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  25% of the patients with inflammatory bowel disease are children and and young adolescents. The primary concern is its impact on growth velocity, puberty and quality of life, including psychosocial issues. Treatment guidelines are being re-defined as the drug armamentarium is increasing. The emphasis will be to achieve mucosal healing and normal growth velocity with minimal drug toxicity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Apollo Centre for Advanced Pediatrics, Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, Sarita Vihar, New Delhi, India. Correspondence to: Dr Akshay Kapoor, Department of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Liver Transplantation, Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, Sarita Vihar, New Delhi, India. akshaydr80@yahoo.co.in.
authors.forename: Akshay
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kapoor
authors.forename: Vidyut
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Bhatia
authors.forename: Anupam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sibal
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D015212:Inflammatory Bowel Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy