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Proctitis
is inflammation of the lining of the rectum, called the rectal mucosa.
Proctitis can be short term (acute) or long term (chronic). Proctitis
has many causes. It may be a side effect of medical treatments like
radiation therapy or antibiotics. Diseases like ulcerative colitis,
Crohn's disease, and sexually transmitted diseases may also cause
proctitis. Other causes include rectal injury, bacterial infection,
allergies, and malfunction of the nerves in the rectum.
Symptoms
include constipation, a feeling of rectal fullness, left-sided
abdominal pain, passage of mucus through the rectum, rectal bleeding,
and anorectal pain.
Physicians
diagnose proctitis by looking inside the rectum with a proctoscope
or a sigmoidoscope. A tiny piece of tissue from the rectum may
be removed and tested for a bacterium, fungus, or virus.
Treatment
depends on the cause of proctitis. For example, the physician
may prescribe antibiotics for proctitis caused by bacterial infection.
If the inflammation is caused by Crohn's disease or ulcerative
colitis, the physician may recommend the drug 5-aminosalicyclic
acid (5ASA), or corticosteroids applied directly to the area or
taken in pill form.
Additional
Information on Proctitis
The National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse collects
resource information on digestive diseases for the Combined Health
Information Database (CHID). CHID is a database produced by health-related
agencies of the Federal Government. The CHID database located
on the World Wide Web at http://chid.nih.gov/simple/simple.html,
provides titles, abstracts, and availability information for health
information and health education resources. See the results of
our CHID research on "Proctitis," March
22, 2002.
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