[The course of illness in ulcerative colitis]

The data of 301 ulcerative proctitis/colitis patients, with a mean follow-up of 10 (1/2-26) 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.