Inflammatory bowel disease belongs to the categories of diarrhea, dysentery, abdominal pain, and intestinal carbuncle in traditional Chinese medicine. Inflammatory bowel disease is caused by external pathogens, food injury, weakness of body and other causes, resulting in spleen deficiency and dampness, spleen dysfunction, abnormal transmission of large and small intestines, imbalance of ascending and descending, and indistinguishable from turbidity, resulting in diarrhea. Commonly used external treatment methods of traditional Chinese medicine include moxibustion, traditional Chinese medicine enema, acupoint application, acupoint catgut embedding, acupuncture, etc., which not only improve the therapeutic effect of inflammatory bowel disease, but also reduce the risk of adverse drug reactions to a certain extent. This article reviewed the application and research progress of TCM external therapy in inflammatory bowel disease.