Abstract
One hundred and twenty-five years have passed since Samuel Wilks of England in 1859 first described ulcerative colitis and probably also Crohn’s disease of the small bowel (inflammatory bowel disease - IBD). While studied in a few medical centers during this period, IBD has attracted worldwide attention only in recent years. The Second International Symposium on IBD, held in Jerusalem, September 9–11, 1985, is the latest such meeting, the previous one having been held in September 1981. Despite the increased clinical and investigative interest, the etiology and the pathogenesis of IBD remain obscure. Medical treatment continues to be largely empirical. Surgical techniques have improved, but ablative procedures, no matter how necessary or skilled, hardly represent the ideal solution.
A11 at present known in medicine is almost nothing in comparison with what remains to be discovered. – R. Descartes (1596–1650)
Chapter PDF
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1986 Martinus Nijhoff Publishers
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kirsner, J.B. (1986). Observations on Inflammatory Bowel Disease – 1985: Present Status and Future Prospects. In: Rachmilewitz, D. (eds) Inflammatory Bowel Diseases 1986. Developments in Gastroenterology, vol 8. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4269-1_33
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4269-1_33
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-8396-6
Online ISBN: 978-94-009-4269-1
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive