SURGICAL TREATMENT OF CHRONIC ULCERATIVE COLITIS

Abstract

Twenty years ago ulcerative colitis was considered a disease belonging exclusively in the field of internal medicine, and the surgeon was called on to treat only certain complications that arose. The treatment of the disease process itself by surgical procedures is, relatively speaking, still in its infancy and has not yet reached the stage of universal acceptance. If one follows the history of the subject one sees surgical procedure after surgical procedure rise with a wave of enthusiasm only to be forced into the background by some innovation in medical treatment. The large number of methods of attack in use today, together with the high mortality that still prevails, make it obvious that the ideal method of treatment has not yet been discovered. In general, the surgical procedures that have been developed aim at one of three things: (1) to provide an avenue for direct irrigation of the diseased bowel