Clinical course of chronic nonspecific ulcerative colitis

The literature pertaining to nonspecific ulcerative colitis continues to emphasize the widely varying concepts of its pathogenesis and treatment.1Although considerable attention has been directed in the past decade to the effects of antibiotics2and to the results of surgical therapy,3observations on the natural history of this disease have been comparatively infrequent.4It seemed of interest, therefore, to review the clinical features and course of nonspecific ulcerative colitis in an illustrative series of 100 patients. The cases were chosen from a group of approximately 250 by the following criteria: completeness of data, length of the period of observation and accurate information as to their present status. There were 14 deaths. Sixty-five of the 86 surviving patients have been reexamined since Jan. 1, 1947; the remainder were restudied in 1946. Because of the method of selection of material to be used in this report, the number of patients