No abstract

Accurate information and advice from health care professionals could serve to reassure patients and to ensure they are well informed about the medicines they take.

Clinical assessment of 134 patients with hidradenitis suppurativa revealed clinical evidence supporting an androgen-based endocrine disorder underlying the condition. Such features included postpubertal onset maximal during the third decade; female preponderance (13:5); premenstrual flare in 57 per cent of women; absence of this flare associated with irregular or anovulatory menstrual cycles; and an increased incidence of obesity and acne. Detailed hormone profiles in 36 female patients and 14 controls showed evidence of relative androgen excess and decreased progesterone levels in those patients without a premenstrual flare. Obesity and enhanced peripheral androgen conversion by apocrine tissue are possible explanations for normal serum androgen profiles in patients with a flare. Precise elucidation of the hormonal abnormality is a prerequisite for effective medical treatment of early disease.

Assessment of the efficacy of therapeutic approaches to anal lesions of Crohn's disease is frustrated by the lack of precise definition of its various manifestations. A classification that is clinical and based on anatomic and pathologic aspects is presented; it has been derived from a 20-year prospective study of anal Crohn's disease in Cardiff. Conceptually, the classification is analogous to the TNM system for cancer. The main classification (U.F.S.) defines the presence of Ulceration, Fistula/abscess, and Stricture, qualified by numeric values reflecting severity (0 = not present, 1 = limited clinical impact, and 2 = severe). A subsidiary classification (A.P.D.) defines Associated conditions, Proximal intestinal involvement, and Disease activity. In addition, the classification may be used in a detailed form for research or comparative purposes or in a simple form defining only the dominant lesions for routine clinical use. General use of the classification would make it possible to compare in detail incidence, management, and results of treatment in different centers.

Forty-six patients who underwent colectomy with end ileostomy for ulcerative colitis (n = 33) or Crohn's disease (n = 13) have been reviewed for paraileostomy hernia (PIH) formation 1-16 years after surgery. PIH developed in 13 of these patients (28 per cent) and was not related to the original disease or excessive weight gain. Twenty-eight patients underwent limited computed tomography (CT) scanning of the stomal region. Eight of these had a clinically detectable PIH, which was demonstrated on CT. A further two patients had PIH demonstrated on CT which was not detected by clinical examination. The rate of PIH was similar where the stoma emerged lateral to the rectus abdominis muscle (six out of 16 patients, 37 per cent) to where the stoma emerged through the rectus (four out of 12 patients, 33 per cent). Recurrence following operative repair of PIH was common. PIH occurs more frequently than previously supposed. CT can detect PIH and may be useful in evaluating a patient with stoma-related symptoms for occult PIH formation.