[Team approach of Crohn's disease therapy]

Under the current conditions that etiologies of Crohn's Disease (CD) are not detected and then no radical therapy existed, it is necessary that the CD patients can be medically managed by not only medical doctors but also other co-medical staffs such as nurses, dietitians, social workers and ET (Enterostomal Therapist) nurses for their cure & care therapy. There are some different therapeutic steps; 1) Nutritional Therapy, 2) Drug Therapy, 3) Surgical Therapy and 4) Psychological (Mental) Support. In Japan, Nutritional Therapy headed by Elemental Enteral Nutrition is recommended as for 1st choice standard therapy for CD patients, who are mainly very young and are required to have themselves acceptable for long-term therapeutic controls. Thus, the medical support team shall be considerable enough to each patient's life back ground in order to give them the whole-mentally therapeutic approach.