My brother was diagnosed with crohn's disease a month ago. It has been a real pain in the behind for him, quite literally. He has been suffering from diarrhoea like it's going out of fashion. I have been reading up on it and it says something about fistulas on the website for crohn's disease. Can you explain what this is?
Fistulas are channels from body cavities to body cavities that are not normally there. They can also be channels from body cavities to skin. Fistulas affect many people who have got crohn's disease, and your brother's doctor should be able to tell if your brother has got any fistulas. They don't happen to everyone with crohn's disease but they are very common.
Can I interrupt your thread and ask a question too? I would like to know more about the process of what actually happens when fistulas go from a point in the digestive system to the skin. What is the result? I am having some very visual, through probably wrong, ideas of this process and I would appreciate it is someone can tell me the actual version.