Book excerpt: Geared to a wide readership of practicing clinicians and trainees in primary care medicine and gastroenterology, this handbook offers practical information on Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Coverage begins with the patient's first visit and proceeds through the diagnostic workup: endoscopy, radiologic testing, and instruments for rating and classifying inflammatory bowel disease. Discussions of therapy include conventional therapies, immunomodulators, biologic therapies, surgical approaches, and intestinal stomas. Chapters discuss extraintestinal manifestations of inflammatory bowel disease, inflammatory bowel disease and the liver, infections, and pouchitis. Additional chapters focus on nursing considerations, nutrition, women's health issues, and inflammatory bowel disease and the workplace.