EXTENSIVE ARTERIAL AND VENOUS THROMBOSIS COMPLICATING CHRONIC ULCERATIVE COLITIS

Abstract

It is generally agreed that chronic ulcerative colitis is one of the most serious of the diseases that afflict the digestive tract of man. Its complications may be equally serious. Fortunately, they are rare, but, unfortunately, when they do occur in a given case they are likely to be multiple.¹ One of the very serious complications of chronic ulcerative colitis is extensive thrombosis of the blood vessels. Among fifteen hundred cases of chronic ulcerative colitis which we have observed thrombophlebitis or arterial thrombosis which was extensive enough to become a grave clinical problem occurred in eighteen. Less serious subclinical thrombosis of small vessels, chiefly the veins, has occurred more frequently than extensive thrombosis. In patients who come to necropsy, emboli and thrombi have been found in various places, such as the pelvic plexuses, lungs, spleen and kidneys. Among the last forty-three of our patients who died of chronic ulcerative