Ulcerative oesophagitis in association with ulcerative colitis

EDITORIAL COMMENT A case report describing a possible new complication of proctocolitis. Ulcerative colitis is primarily a disease of the large bowel, but a wide variety of extracolonic com-plications 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 in-fections arise as a result of the general debility caused by the colitis (Grieve, 1964). Gastritis and small intestinal changes were found in a high pro-portion of patients with ulcerative colitis by Salem, Truelove, and Richards (1964), and are of more un-certain 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 pa-tients in whom dysphagia occurred during the course of a severe attack of ulcerative colitis. Both were found to have multiple ulcerations of the oes-ophagus, 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