Overcoming challenges of treating inflammatory bowel disease in pregnancy

ABSTRACT

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is frequently diagnosed before or during the peak reproductive years. Overall management of inflammatory bowel disease is becoming more complex given the nuances involved with multiple mechanisms of action of the current treatment and need for therapeutic monitoring for safety and efficacy; another layer of complexity is added in the setting of a pregnancy. In this review, we have identified several key challenges that health care providers face when caring for patients with IBD during pregnancy. The goal of this review is to provide the most up-to-date evidence and provide our expert recommendations so that providers can more comfortably address patients’ questions about pregnancy in IBD and the associated risks as well as optimize their care to ensure the best outcomes possible.

KEYWORDS:

• Inflammatory bowel disease
• Crohn’s disease
• ulcerative colitis
• pregnancy
• infliximab
• adalimumab
• certolizumab pegol
• natalizumab
• vedolizumab

Declaration of interest

S Kane has served as a consultant to AbbVie and UCB. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.