Inflammatory diseases of the large and small intestine.

Abstract

~E TWO ~{~U~ ~IS~SBS aff(~ting the large and small intestine are regional ileitis and ulcerative colitis. The first description of' regional ileitis is usually credited to Dr. Saunders who in 1806 described a case before the Royal College of Physicians in which the patient, William Payne Oeorges, Esq., suffered an intermitte~t irregula.r f(.'ver for six months and at necrospy "the lower part of the ileum as far as the colon was contracted for the space of three feet to the size of'a turkey's quill." in 1932, Crohn, Ginzburg, and Oppenheimer r-' made their classic contribution, "We propose to describe in its pathological and clinical details a disease of the terminal ilemn, affecting mainly young adults, characterized by a subacutc or chronic necrotizing and cicatrizing inflammation. The ulceration of the mucosa is accompanied by a disproportionate connective tissue reaction of the remaining walls of the involved intestMe which frequently leads to stenosis of the lumen of the intestil~te associated with the formation of multiple fistulae. '~ The first description of ulcerative colitis is attributed to Wilks alJd Moxan 3. and a description of the disorder given today differs but little from that given 85 years ago--an inflammatory disease of the rectum and colon characterized clinically by diarrhea, abdominal pain, and recfal Meediug in association with anorexia, weight loss and pyrexia and characteristic changes on sigmoidoscopy and radiologic examilmtion of the colon.