Oral Indicators of Ulcerative Colitis: A Rare Case Report and Review of Literature

Ulcerative colitis (UC) belongs to the inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), which may be divided into two major groups, ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD). It affects part or whole of the large intestine, frequently of the lower colon and rectum, causes inflammation and ulcers. The leading initial symptom of UC is diarrhea with blood and mucus, pain, tenesmus. UC is usually associated with recurrent attacks with complete remission of symptoms in the interim. Extraintestinal manifestations including various oral lesions have been associated with UC. The oral lesions in UC are rare and commonly occurring are mucosal ulcers, aphthous ulcers, pyostomatitis vegetans, etc. at any part of the oral cavity. Microscopically the oral lesions mimic colonic crypt abscess without granulomatous inflammation, spongiotic epithelium with eosinophilic and neutrophilic intraepithelial microabscesses and submucosa shows edema with neutrophils, eosinophils and lymphocytes. The severity of the oral disease usually reflects the severity of intestinal disease; oral manifestations may be used as additional criteria to determine the severity of disease and probably response to therapy. Here, we present a rare case report with oral manifestations as indicators for intestinal disease flare-ups in a patient diagnosed with UC.