<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> Original Question: "....when she (my niece) was younger she was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease and a blockage was removed in her colon. I believe she had to have part of her colon and small intestine removed. I know sometimes Celiac disease is sometimes misdiagnosed as Crohn's. What is your experience on this? I know I don't have a lot of information but I was wondering if anyone else knew anything about the relationship between colon blockages and Celiac, if there is any. If there are any good websites that talk about this that I could point her to, that would be helpful." RESPONSES: We do know that 1/4 of all celiacs react to gluten with constipation. That could easily impact and cause a bowel blockage. * * * * * * * * * * * My daughter has Crohn's disease (age 12) and is also gluten intolerant and follows a GF diet (she is anti-gliadin IgG positive, IgA negative, never biopsied, extremely sensitive to gluten). Here's my take on your questions, based on my own research since I've been dealing with Crohn's for 4 yrs now. Crohn's is an autoimmune disease that causes swelling and inflamation of part of the GI tract - most often the small intestine but it can be anywhere from mouth to anus and often has a skipped appearance (some bowel is fine, some is affected). It is mostly inherited but is believed to require an environmental trigger. Celiac is also autoimmune and inherited. As I'm sure you know, gluten causes reversible damage to the villi. Both celiac and Crohn's cause a characteristic appearance to the intestine. The changes to villi in Celiac Disease are usually only seen by microscope (since villi are very small). The damage of Crohn's causes swelling and inflammation (red, swollen) to the full thickness of the intestinal wall when moderate to severe. Some people will have Crohn's in a single area which causes obstruction (due to swelling); if this is removed surgically (as in your niece's case) and the disease does not re-occur. This is the exception -not the rule. Most folks with Crohn's have it their whole life; even if they have surgery to remove severely damaged intestine (has a hole or is so swollen that food cannot pass thru) - the disease reoccurs in months. Most Crohn's sufferers are on powerful drugs for life (Prednisone, Imuran, 6MP). My daughter's GI doc thought she may have become sensitive to wheat because her intestine was so inflamed (with oozing sores) that gluten was able to cross into her blood stream. Her body recognized it as a 'foreign protein' and formed antibodies. She has attention deficit disorder (ADD) and gluten sensitivity is much more common in these kids - so maybe she just has a gene for gluten sensitivity also - who knows! I have never heard of colon blockages from celiac disease - except for constipation, of course - but that does not require surgery. I don't think there is that much chance of misdiagnosis in your niece's case (if all the docs were competent and honest with her family) - since they did surgery, they were able to visualize the intestine very well and I'm sure sent tissue samples for pathology. The slides should have been pretty clear cut. Of course, there are exceptions - but I'm just sharing the usual course of things. The website for the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation is www.ccfa.org. There is some info there; I ordered a couple of books from their site about kids & Crohn's disease - that's where I got most of my info. * * * * * * * * * * * I have Celiac Disease and in the past, oh...about 12 years I have had 3 bowel blockages. The first required surgery to straighten things out but no bowel was removed. Since then I have had 2 other lengthy hospitalizations for blockages but no surgery was required. After my first bout, my gastroenterologist told me that celiacs can develop something called a volvulus (or something like that) which means the bowels can get kinked and double back and into other sections of the bowel (not a very scientific description, I'm afraid). After I had the surgery I discovered that I was celiac (the surgery caused the condition to flair up) and I went on the GF diet. Apparently the diet has not caused my tendency toward blockages to go away, but at least I can tell when one is coming on and head to the emergency room. I know many, many celiacs and none of them have had blockages...I guess some of us are just lucky, huh? * * * * * * * * * * * * * * I had five small intestional obstructions one an intusseption that Nearly ended my life and almost three ft were removed but when i finally Got a diagnoses of celiac i haven't had any obstructions and i do feel the DRs are saying people have Chrons when it's probably celiac and that's so sad. Because my Diagnosis was so late i can't eat or drink and i live on tpn * * * * * * * * * * * Most "blockages" are growths or tumors in the small or large intestine. In someone who has had previous surgery(ies) then the problem is often adhesions or scar tissue that grows to the extent that it "blocks" the portion of the intestine above the blocked area. Blockage from adhesion-type tissue can also result from severe Crohn's which was not treated or which didn't respond to treatment -- would expect this to be less likely in children who don't have years of damage from Crohns dis. (or other diseases) to result in extensive "scarring". These are the most common causes of blockages in intestines but there are other causes which are more rare (like following an abdominal injury. If they did total or partial resection (removal) of colon or small intestine, it's because total blockage of colon or intestine is life-threatening - a very serious emergency needing immediate surgery. Also they may have feared the blockage was pre-cancerous. I believe Crohn's and Celiac are 2 separate GI disorders but it is possible to be Celiac and have Crohn's at the same time. Often Celiac and Crohn's are mistaken for each other but biopsies, if carefully done, should distinguish between the two. IBS is a third GI disorder and it is an overused diagnosis which too often is mistakenly given when Celiac or Crohn's is the actual diagnosis. Microscopic colitis is another GI disorder and is believed to be carried on the HLA-DQ2 gene ( I have 2 copies of this gene and the information I gave here is mainly from Dr. Fine's research and theory. I got partial relief from eliminating gluten -- but also had to eliminate all dairy, not just lactose but casein and whey and other milk-proteins also to get relief.) Fine's website is www.finerhealth.com I think -- haven't checked it in awhile but probably is the same.