Paediatric Inflammatory Bowel Diseases – brief update on current practice and future perspectives

Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) are chronic disorders of the digestive tract that result in relapsing inflammation of the intestinal mucosa. Over the last few decades we have seen a significant increase in the incidence of these conditions. This increase has been particularly noticeable in children and young adults, who currently contribute almost 30% of all patients diagnosed with IBD. Despite major advances in our knowledge, the exact cause of IBD remains unknown and in the absence of a curative treatment patients are still faced with a lifelong disabling condition. In the following brief review we will summarise current practice in diagnosing and managing children with IBD and highlight some of the recent advances. Additionally, we will briefly discuss ongoing research in the field and introduce epigenetics as a novel concept with a potential to explain some of the missing links in IBD disease pathogenesis.