Possible concomitant diseases

A whole range of diseases carries the risk of occurring together with ulcerative colitis (associated). These include : This topic might also be of interest to you: Causes of ulcerative colitis

Joints and spine: Ankolosing spondylitis /Morbus Bechterew /Rheumatoid arthritis /Chronic polyarthritis/Sacroiliitis
Liver and bile ducts: primary sclerosing cholangitis, fatty degeneration of the liver
Skin symptoms: Pyoderma gangraenosum (extensive skin ulcers), Erythema nodosum (inflammation of the subcutaneous tissue)
Eye: uveitis iritis (inflammation of the iris), episcleritis (inflammation of the leather skin)

Joint pain is the most common non-intestinal symptom in patients with ulcerative colitis. In this chronic inflammatory bowel disease, antibodies are held responsible for this, which are deposited in the joints and can cause painful joint inflammation (medical term: arthritis).

These joint pains can occur on the axial skeleton (axial arthritis) or affect the small joints of the limbs in the periphery. Examples of an affection of the articular skeleton are ankylosing spondylitis or an inflammatory change of the lower spine, the so-called sacroiliitis. The joint pain can be relapsing-associated or occur independently of a relapse.

The chronic inflammatory bowel disease ulcerative colitis can also cause problems outside of the bowel, for example back pain. These mostly deep back pains, which are usually located in the area of the lumbar spine, can either be associated with the inflammation or occur as a so-called extraintestinal manifestation of the chronic inflammatory bowel disease (frequently used abbreviation: CED). Extraintestinal manifestation means that the symptoms are caused by the disease but are not directly localized in the bowel.

In addition to the main symptoms, symptoms on the skin are not uncommon in colitis ulcerosa. The possible skin changes (erythema nodosum, pyoderma gangraenosum and pyostomatitis vegetans) occur mainly in the context of an acute flare. The most common skin complication, erythema nodosum, is an inflammation of the subcutaneous fatty tissue, which occurs more frequently in women and mainly appears on the extensor sides of the lower legs.

Reddish lumps form on the skin which are very painful under pressure. The less frequent pyoderma gangraenosum (occurring in about 5% of patients with ulcerative colitis) also manifests itself on the extensor sides of the lower extremities. This leads to extremely painful, focal changes in the skin.

At the beginning there are only vesicles, nodules and pustule, which can develop into deep ulcers with central tissue death. In the oral region, patients with ulcerative colitis may develop pyostomatitis vegetans. In this case, numerous pustule vesicles and small ulcers (aphthae) develop on the oral mucosa.

Patients with ulcerative colitis may also develop inflammation of the eyes. For example, the iris (then called iritis) can become inflamed with or without involvement of the ciliary body (iridocyclitis). In such a case, patients suffer from dull pain in the area of the eye and/or forehead, often have watery eyes, see less sharply and are extremely sensitive to light. If the connective tissue (between the sclera and the conjunctiva) becomes inflamed, the eye is painful under pressure and there is a sector-shaped redness, this is called episcleritis. Also an inflammation of the middle eye skin (uveitis) can occur.