Ulcerative oesophagitis in association with ulcerative colitis.

Ulcerative colitis is primarily a disease of the large bowel, but a wide variety of extracolonic complications of the disease are now recognized (Edwards and Truelove, 1964), and a number of these occur in other parts of the alimentary tract. In the mouth, aphthous ulcers and monilial infections arise as a result of the general debility caused by the colitis (Grieve, 1964). Gastritis and small intestinal changes were found in a high proportion of patients with ulcerative colitis by Salem, Truelove, and Richards (1964), and are of more uncertain aetiology. It is possible that immunological factors, such as those described by Taylor (1965a and b), may play a part. In 1956, Berdal and Harnaes described two patients in whom dysphagia occurred during the course of a severe attack of ulcerative colitis. Both were found to have multiple ulcerations of the oesophagus, which eventually improved, leaving fibrous strictures. This paper records a similar occurrence in a young man suffering from ulcerative colitis. We can find no previous account of this complication in the British literature.