Ileostomy and excisional surgery for chronic inflammatory disease of the colon: a survey of one hospital region.

Four hundred and fifty-three patients who underwent ileostomy and excisional large bowel surgery for chronic inflammatory disease at two teaching hospitals and 35 non-teaching hospitals within the North East Metropolitan Hospital Region during the years 1955-66 were surveyed through a study of hospital case records. The surgical results and complications are presented in part I; a study of the health of these patients after their discharge from hospital is made in part II in an attempt to answer the question posed by many ileostomists, ;Are we as healthy as other people?'