[Colonic Crohn's disease: diagnostic and therapeutic problems. Apropos of 11 cases]

The authors report a few unusual cases of Crohn's disease of the colon and discuss the diagnostic problems which are raised in such cases. They then review the various colonic diseases liable to be considered in a differential diagnosis, and which may be linked to colonic Crohn's disease, e.g. ulcerative colitis, intestinal tuberculosis, carcinoma of the colon, colonic diverticulosis and sarcoidosis. In a chapter on treatment, they emphasize the favourable effect of acexamic acid and the necessity for very wide colonic resection, and they note a complication which they encountered during surgery for Crohn's disease: lymphatic peritonitis on the 8th day after right colectomy.