PATHOLOGY OF REGIONAL ILEITIS AND ULCERATIVE COLITIS

Abstract

Clinically regional ileitis (cicatrizing enteritis) and ulcerative colitis may be sufficiently similar to make distinguishing them difficult. Many medical students and physicians evidently consider that the two diseases merge at the ileocecal valve and that a fair proportion of patients suffer from both diseases. Pathologically this is not true, since by gross and microscopic examination it is almost always possible to arrive at a definite diagnosis either of regional ileitis or of ulcerative colitis. The morphology of the two conditions is as different as syphilis is from gonorrhea. The pathological diagnoses of regional ileitis or ulcerative colitis have now been made over 300 times from surgical specimens in the laboratory of pathology, New England Deaconess Hospital, and a review of the findings may be useful in emphasizing the morphological distinctions observed. Grossly, regional ileitis (cicatrizing enteritis) was restricted to the small intestine in about 85% of cases, and ulcerative colitis