Title:Topical Delivery of Steroids in Inflammatory Bowel Disease
VOLUME: 9 ISSUE: 4
Author(s):C. Girlich and J. Scholmerich
Affiliation:Department of Internal Medicine I, University of Regensburg, 93042 Regensburg, Germany.
Keywords:Steroids, inflammatory bowel disease, glucocorticoid receptor, CROHN'S DISEASE, anti-inflammatory, corticosteroids
Abstract:Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) represent two similar but probably not uniform entities of inflammatory
bowel disease (IBD). Since up to now no curative treatment is available the therapeutic goal in active IBD is
elimination or at least alleviation of symptoms and maintenance of remission. Glucocorticoids have been successfully
used in the treatment of symptoms and inflammation. Due to the minor systemic side effects a topical drug delivery targeting
the active substances directly to the inflamed sites would be the favorable administration. In this review the use of
topical corticosteroids is discussed, based on a short description of their pharmacological properties.
