Liver Diseases in Ulcerative Colitis

Introduction In the past 30 years a number of studies have described the many complications encountered in patients with chronic ulcerative colitis. These studies frequently included large groups of patients, but until recently hepatic disease either was not mentioned or was not prominent as a complication. For example, Bargen, in 1935, noted multiple liver abscesses in two patients as the only complication involving the liver among 1,500 patients with chronic ulcerative colitis.1In 1938, this same author and others described four patients with "hepatic insufficiency" associated with long-standing ulcerative colitis.2They observed that they were previously "unable to find a single case of hepatitis and jaundice complicating ulcerative colitis similar..." to these cases. Jackman et al, in 1940, reported that liver abscesses in four patients were the only hepatic lesions in 871 patients with colitis.3Jankelson, in 1942, reviewed 145 cases of ulcerative colitis and failed to