[A practical guide to chronic inflammatory bowel disease].

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) comprise Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). IBD develops in patients with genetic susceptibility due to an aberrant response of the intestinal immune system toward gut microbiota. The prevalence of IBD is on the rise in Switzerland, with currently 1/250 persons affected, which corresponds to approximately 35,000 patients. Given the complexity of IBD, patients should be managed by a multidisciplinary team. This article focuses on IBD diagnosis and long-term follow-up.