Association of Hepatic Insufficiency With Chronic Ulcerative Colitis

THE OCCURRENCE of disease of the liver in association with chronic idiopathic ulcerative has received little emphasis. Pylephlebitic abscess is occasionally listed as an uncommon, but fatal, complication of ulcerative 1 but nonsuppurative parenchymal hepatic disease is rarely mentioned. However, as early as 1899 Lister 2 reported a case of diffuse ulcerative associated with a secondary acute interstitial hepatitis characterized by a diffuse cellular infiltration in the liver and the presence of an abundance of fat globules. It is of interest to note that even before the separation of simple ulcerative colitis from the dysenteries by Wilks and Moxon, 3 Thomas 4 reported a fatal case of ulceration of the colon in which the rapidly fatal termination was felt to be due to a pathologic process in the liver. The liver was described as being enlarged to twice normal size, much softened and in an advanced stage