RESUMO
To evaluate the morphological spectrum of colonic disease and its clinical presentation in our patients from hospitals in and around Rawalpindi / Islamabad. Design: A retrospective data based study. Place and Duration of Study: Pathology Department of Army Medical College, Rawalpindi. Material and The colonic mucosal biopsies of 1268 patients received during the period of 1980-1995 were studied by routine histopathology methods. A higher frequency of colonic disease in males with a male to female ratio of 2.6:1 and an age range of 1.25 months to 80 years was observed. The clinical presentations mostly seen were bleeding per rectum [32.71%], mass abdomen [23.86%], diarrheal episodes [18.62%], constipation [13.38%] and bloody diarrhea [3.02%]. The major radiological diagnosis available in 71 cases was ulcerative colitis [32.39%], colonic growth [21.12%] and polyps [11.26%]. On endoscopy the most frequently suspected lesions were polyps [34.70%], colonic growth [29.16%], ulcerative colitis [11.66%] and nonspecific findings [9.23%], while 11.23% cases showed unremarkable mucosa. The histopathology revealed mostly nonspecific colitis [25.23%], followed by polyps [24.13%], colonic cancer [17.11%], ulcerative colitis [11.19%] and colonic aganglionosis [6.54%]. A small number of cases of amoebic, eosinophilic and collagenous colitis and Crohn's disease was also seen. A number of biopsies [6.30%] were unremarkable histologically. Anorectosigmoid was the most commonly involved site than rest of the colon with a ratio of 2.43:1 and therefore most lesions were within the reach of rectosigmoidoscope