The systemic complications of ulcerative colitis.

Incidence The frequency of various systemic complications of ulcerative colitis was studied in the series of 465 patients investigated in Leeds between 1948 and 1963 by de Dombal and his colleagues. Skin lesions occurred in twenty-nine patients (6 2%), colitic arthritis in fifty-six patients (12-0%), sacro-iliitis in forty-two patients (18%) and florid spondylitis in thirteen patients (6%). Eye lesions developed in nineteen patients (4%) and liver disease in ten patients (2%). Mouth ulcers (16%) and deep venous thrombosis (5%) seemed to occur more frequently than might have been expected though no statistical differences could be demonstrated.