Gastrointestinal Diseases in Pregnancy

During pregnancy many chronic gastrointestinal disorders can undergo exacerbations. In addition, pregnant women are often susceptible to new gastrointestinal symptoms. The goal of care is to control symptoms, minimize exposure to excessive tests and medications and rule out any urgent need for surgery.  Efforts should be made to minimize risk to mother and fetus when performing diagnostic endoscopic and radiologic tests. In this chapter, we will review the current management of common gastrointestinal disorders during pregnancy, including gastro-esophageal reflux disease, constipation, appendicitis, inflammatory bowel disease and gall stone disease. The safety of medications used to treat gastrointestinal disease will be reviewed and new treatment guidelines and concepts will be discussed. This review contains 5 tables, 4 figures and 55 references. Key words: appendicitis, cholelithiasis, constipation, Crohn’s disease, gall stones, gastrointestinal disease, gastro-esophageal reflux disease, jaundice, pregnancy, ulcerative colitis