Management of IBD in older patients

MAUI, HAWAII – Misconceptions abound regarding inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in the elderly, Uma Mahadevan, MD, said at the Gastroenterology, IBD, Liver Disease meeting.

Bruce Jancin/Frontline Medical News

Among these commonly held inaccurate beliefs are that elderly-onset IBD is not all that common, that it’s typically milder than in younger patients, and that older patients are unlikely to tolerate immunosuppressants, according to Dr. Mahadevan, course chairman and professor of medicine and director of the Center for Colitis and Crohn’s Disease at the University of California, San Francisco.

In addition to dispelling these notions, she outlined her favored treatment strategies in older IBD patients.