This paper is a study of the skin complications of ulcerative colitis. Between theyearsl949and 1965,415 patients, 230 women and 185 men, were admitted to the Central Middlesex Hospital suffering from this disease. Our object has been to determine the incidence and pattern of the skin disorders in this group and to try to discover if there is any relationship between the skin disease and the severity and extent of the colitis. Twenty patients had dermatoses associated with the bowel disorder and 12 were examined by one of us (H.T.H.W.). The morphological classification is based on these personally observed cases. The sex incidence showed that whereas 55 % of the whole series of colitics were women, 14 (70%) of those who had skin complications were women. Seven developed different types of lesion at different stages of the disease. The main conditions found were erythema nodosum (eight cases), pyoderma gangrenosum (seven cases), papulo-necrotic lesions (five cases), and ulcerating erythematous plaques on the shins (three cases). ERYTHEMA NODOSUMTender red nodes, generally appearing on the shins and associated with exacerbations of the colitis, occurred in eight patients, all women.The age of onset of erythema nodosum varied from 21 to 52 years (mean 29 years) and the skin lesions developed at any time from the onset of the first attack of colitis to 16 years later (mean 5*5 years). Although the attacks of erythema nodosum coincided with exacerbations of the colitis there was no correlation with the extent of the disease.

No abstract

A total of 109 patients were included in the trial. Of these, 66 had eczema and 43 had psoriasis. Their ages ranged from 6 months to 76 years and the sex ratio was 48 males to 61 females. These two groups were subdivided into those occluded with polyethylene, and those treated without polyethylene. Two patients who were initially included in the trial failed to carry out the instructions given by the clinicians and were therefore excluded from the investigation.The total numbers treated are shown in the Table. Statistical investigations, by means of restricted sequential analysis, of the results in the first two groups are shown in Fig.

No abstract