Sarcoidosis of the sigmoid colon.

Sarcoidosis is a strange disease of protean manifestations and unknown aetiology, first described as a skin lesion by Boeck in 1899. Though it may involve any tissue in the body (Longcope, 1941), it is usually associated with lesions' of skin, lymph nodes, lungs or salivary glands. Its accidental discovery in other tissues or regions of the body, not usually associated in the mind of the clinician with the disease, may come as a surprise and lead to tragic results as in the case about to be described. Raven (i949), in a review of the surgical manifestations of sarcoidosis, includes reports of cases involving the alimentary tract, but the literature en this subject is scanty. For this reason it is deemed appropriate to include a brief review of the literature on sarcoid lesions of the alimentary tract.