What is a Fistula?
Using the garden hose analogy, Sometimes, the kink in the garden hose can turn into a hole, or even multiple holes if the garden hose is run over or used alot, this hole is called a Fistula. This is bad, because the water is still running, so the water fills up the bucket, or inside skin, causing extreme pain which generally have to be poaked and drained in severe cases.
Crohn's disease involves ulcers in the intestines that burn their way through all layers of the bowels. When this happens, the ulcer can also work its way through any other organs that happen to be near where it exits the guts.
Because the body is most interested in healing itself, once the inflammation is under control, it begins to rebuild the tissue where the ulcer had been. If two or more organs or other parts of the body are close to each other and had been affected by the ulcer, they can heal together causing a tunnel from one into the other. This tunnel is called a fistula.
The fistula can be created anywhere in the body cavity that the ulcer can reach. They can even create a channel from the intestines to the outside of the body if the ulcer should eat its way through the abdominal wall.
Though the use of such medications as Remicade have slowed down the need for surgery, that course is still most often used to correct the damage done by the ulcer. Because of the risk of infection during surgery, as well as the inherent risks, doctors do their best to prevent fistulas from forming through the use of anti-inflammatories and immunosuppressents to relieve the inflammation that causes the ulcers