Het ziektebeloop bij colitis ulcerosa

- The data of 301 ulcerative proctitiscolitis patients, with a mean follow-up of 10 (½-26) years were analysed retrospectively. In 84 patients (28) the diagnosis was made in this hospital (non-selected group), the other 217 patients were referred from other hospitals with an established diagnosis of ulcerative colitis.

At any time after the fifth year of illness approximately 55 of the non-selected patients were free of symptoms, for the referred patients this proportion was 30. In one half of the cases the inflammation started as a proctitis, almost 60 of these progressed to colitis later. Fourteen patients (5) had a toxic megacolon, and a colon carcinoma developed in 9 patients (3) on average 13 years after the first symptoms of colitis. We recorded 9 colitis-related deaths. Fifty patients (17) underwent a colectomy, mostly because of failure of conservative therapy.