A 22-year-old patient complains of frequent diarrhea, mucous discharge, rectal bleeding, lower abdominal pain, and tenesmus. On endoscopy, inflammation is found only in the descending colon and rectum with no healthy mucosa between the lesions. The nurse begins planning education for the patient about which condition?

Ulcerative colitis. The patient’s symptoms may indicate Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis. However, the patient’s symptoms and intestinal damage are limited to the colon and rectum without skip lesions (healthy tissue between lesions), so the diagnosis is likely ulcerative colitis. C. difficile infection is characterized by foul-smelling, intractable diarrhea with positive stool culture. Necrotizing enterocolitis is a disorder found in primarily premature infants where parts of the bowel dies.

A 22-year-old patient complains of frequent diarrhea, mucous disc...

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Physiological Adaptation
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Category: Physiological Adaptation
Difficulty: 6

Topics: Gastrointestinal

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