Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Aug 7, 2015; 21(29): 8739-8752
Published online Aug 7, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i29.8739
Inflammatory pouch disease: The spectrum of pouchitis
Petros Zezos, Fred Saibil
Petros Zezos, Fred Saibil, Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M4N 3M5, Canada
Author contributions: Zezos P and Saibil F substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data; analysis and interpretation of data, drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and final approval of the version to be published.
Supported by unrestricted grants from Janssen Inc. (Canada), Abbvie (Canada), Ferring Canada Inc., and Actavis Canada Inc. (partly, to Dr Zezos).
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Petros Zezos, MD, PhD, Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, H52-2075 Bayview Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M4N 3M5, Canada. zezosp13@hotmail.com
Telephone: +1-416-4804727 Fax: +1-416-4805977
Received: March 4, 2015
Peer-review started: March 5, 2015
First decision: April 13, 2015
Revised: April 29, 2015
Accepted: June 26, 2015
Article in press: June 26, 2015
Published online: August 7, 2015
Core Tip

Core tip: Proctocolectomy with ileal-pouch and anal anastomosis is the operation of choice for refractory ulcerative colitis, for colitis with dysplasia, for familial polyposis and for selected Crohn’s colitis patients. Pouchitis symptoms are non-specific, and cannot be used alone to identify the cause. Furthermore, the name “pouchitis” is a general term representing many conditions, with differing causes and treatments. To manage pouchitis appropriately, one must be able to establish the correct diagnosis. In this paper, we have reviewed the diagnostic methods, including endoscopy, histology and other investigative tools, with the goal of being able to provide the correct diagnosis and treatment.