Mucocutaneous manifestations of inflammatory bowel disease in Turkey

Mucocutaneous manifestations of inflammatory bowel diseases are relatively common; the mean incidence is around 10% at the time of diagnosis. However, during follow-up, an increased variety of skin lesions, granulomatous cutaneous disease, reactive skin eruptions, nutritional defiencies, and other associated conditions may develop.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of the mucocutaneous manifestations and their association with gender, duration of disease, arthritis, location of the bowel disease, and disease activity.

Fifty-six patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) and 36 patients with Crohn disease (CD) who were in follow-up in the Istanbul Medeniyet University Göztepe Training and Research Hospital Department of Gastroenterology were included in the study. Whole-body dermatologic examinations were performed for all patients, and patient files were evaluated for mucocutaneous manifestations.

Of the 92 patients, 49 (53.26%) presented with at least one mucocutaneous manifestation (58.9% of patients with UC and 44.4% of patients with CD). Of these, 38 (41.3%) had at least one reactive skin eruption. Aphthous stomatitis was noted in 33 patients (35.86%) and became the most common mucocutaneous manifestation. Granulomatous cutaneous diseases were detected in 18 patients (19.57%), and none of the patients had a nutritional deficiency-associated skin condition. Only 3 patients (3.26%) had erythema nodosum and 2 patients (2.17%) had pyoderma gangrenosum.

We found that mucocutaneous manifestations of inflammatory bowel diseases are more common than thought and are more common in UC than in CD. No association was detected between mucocutaneous manifestions and gender, duration of disease, arthritis, location of the bowel disease, and activity of the disease.