Skin lesions in ulcerative colitis.

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).