Topical delivery of steroids in inflammatory bowel disease.

Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) represent two similar but probably not uniform entities of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Since up to now no curative treatment is available the therapeutic goal in active IBD is elimination or at least alleviation of symptoms and maintenance of remission. Glucocorticoids have been successfully used in the treatment of symptoms and inflammation. Due to the minor systemic side effects a topical drug delivery targeting the active substances directly to the inflamed sites would be the favorable administration. In this review the use of topical corticosteroids is discussed, based on a short description of their pharmacological properties.