Anorectal and colonic Crohn's disease

Crohn's disease most frequently presents in late adolescence or early adulthood and is equally distributed between the genders [1]. Symptoms at presentation vary depending on the location, behaviour and severity of disease, as well as extraintestinal manifestations and medication. The aim is to establish the diagnosis and distribution of disease using appropriate techniques, since this influences the choice of therapy. Originally, Dr. Burrill Crohn and colleagues described regional ileitis as a chronic inflammatory disease restricted to the terminal ileum in association with intestinal stenoses or fistulae, but not crossing the ileocaecal valve [2]. Although Crohn subsequently recognised colonic disease in conjunction with ileitis [3], it was Basil Morson and Lyn Lockhart-Mummery who put colonic Crohn's disease on the diagnostic map [4, 5]. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.