Involvement of the Ileum in Chronic Ulcerative Colitis

THE fact that extension of the inflammatory process to the terminal portion of the ileum occurs in patients with chronic ulcerative colitis is fairly well known, but it has not received sufficient emphasis. The ileocecal valve does not limit the progress of the lesions of ulcerative colitis into the terminal part of the ileum any more than it prevents secondary involvement of the colon from the ileum in cases of regional enteritis. The type of chronic ulcerative colitis that begins in the rectum and spreads orad may in many cases extend into the terminal part of the ileum; it may . . .