Skip lesion of the cecum associated with proctitis: an atypical case of ulcerative colitis

The authors report the clinical case of a patient who underwent total colectomy for acute ulcerative colitis. The unusual element in this case was the presence of a lesion ('skip lesion'), typical of ulcerative colitis, in the periappendiceal area of the cecum, which was discontinuous to the main site of disease located in the rectum and left colon. The presence of skip lesions, whose clinicopathological relevance is still unknown, would seem to disprove the widely held view that ulcerative colitis involves only the mucous membrane of the large intestine, with inflammatory processes of varying intensity, but without intervening normal areas. The alteration in mucosal immune response by sharing of some factors as bacterial flora, stasis and secretory products is a suggestive pathogenetic supposition.