Oropharyngeal Crohn’s disease

Abstract

Crohn’s disease is a chronic inflammatory disease that can affect any part of the gastrointestinal tract. Classically the disease has a predilection for the distal small bowel and colon and presents with dominant symptoms of abdominal pain and diarrhea. This case report describes a 38-year-old woman with Crohn’s disease who presented with odynophagia. Direct visualization of the oropharynx revealed a large serpiginous Crohn’s disease ulcer. A precipitous drop in hemoglobin prompted a series of gastroenterologic investigations that confirmed both ileal and oropharyngeal Crohn’s disease. This manuscript describes the presentation of oropharyngeal Crohn’s and reviews previous reports and management options.

Keywords:

• Crohn’s disease
• odynophagia
• immunomodulatory therapy
• oropharyngeal Crohn’s disease
• aphthous ulcer
• gastroscopy

Disclosures

None of the authors have conflicts of interest to disclose.