Some observations on a patient with an ileostomy bearing on the diagnosis of “irritable colon”

Summary

The case which has been reported had always suffered from periodic attacks associated with systemic and gastro-intestinal symptoms. Later, he developed a chronic ulcerative colitis for which an ileostomy was performed. Following the operation he did not experience gastro-intestinal symptoms with these attacks although he could recognize that the small intestine was misbehaving. These observations suggest that the disturbance in some patients with a so-called “irritable colon” may reside in the small intestine.