№ 10Gastroenterology13 min read

Ulcerative colitis

1. Big picture

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease affecting the colon only, with inflammation that starts in the rectum and extends continuously proximally. The classic exam pattern is:

young adult + bloody diarrhea + urgency/tenesmus + continuous rectal colitis on colonoscopy.

The examiner wants you to distinguish UC from Crohn disease:

Feature	Ulcerative colitis	Crohn disease
Site	Colon only	Any part of GI tract, mouth to anus

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