Regional Ileitis in Mother and Son

Regional Ileitis in Mother and SonA familial incidence of regional ileitis is recognized (Crohn, 1949).We have been able to find reports of 18 instances.Five of these were recorded by Crohn (1949) from his series of 298 cases of the disease.Armitage and Wilson (1950), in their series of 34 patients, noted a single familial case.In nine of the descriptions brothers and/or sisters were affected (Lewisohn, 1938; Brown and Scheifley, 1939: Edwards, 1948; Riech, quoted by Kirsner et al., 1948; Crohn, 1949; Armitage and Wilson, 1950).In a recent com- munication (Crohn and Janowitz, 1954) an additional six in- stances (making a total experience of 11) of familial inci- dence are recorded, but the relationships are not described.Of the remaining three, the patients were first cousins (Bockus, 1943); a child and her two aunts (Crohn, 1949); and a father and son (Kirsner et al., 1948).We present here an acute regional ileitis occurring in the son of a woman suffering from the chronic disease.