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EDITORIAL COMMENT Better treatment is resulting in more severe cases of amoebic colitis surviving and these patients may have severe residual damage to the bowel resulting in ulcerative post-dysenteric colitis. This is considered to be a distinct entity.The term 'post-dysenteric colonic irritability' was introduced by Sir Arthur Hurst (1943) to describe persistent irritability of the bowel following an acute attack of bacillary or amoebic dysentery. The early symptoms were attributed to a non-specific chronic colitis occurring after the specific infection had died out, but in the later stages were thought to be due to 'functional irritability' of the colon. Stewart (1950) found that post-dysenteric colitis was more commonly a sequel to acute amoebic dysentery and was able to recognize two forms in his patients: 1 Those with mild symptoms and no colonic ulceration, which he named 'functional post-dysenteric colitis', and (2) Those with colonic ulceration and more severe symptoms, which he termed 'ulcerative postdysenteric colitis'.The form with mild symptoms accords with Hurst's (1943) description of post-dysenteric colonic irritability and comprises one group of patients forming part of the 'irritable colon syndrome ' (Chaudhary and Truelove, 1962). However, there are few descriptions of patients with ulcerative postdysenteric colitis. The condition is omitted from many modern textbooks of gastroenterology and, apart from a brief account by Wilmot (1958), the more recent literature has not enlarged on Stewart's (1950) observations. Yet, to judge from requests for information, confusion exists concerning the distinction between post-dysenteric colonic irritability, ulcerative post-dysenteric colitis, and chronic, nonspecific ulcerative colitis.Among Africans in Durban both bacillary and acute amoebic dysentery are common. The former condition is usually self-limiting, responds readily to treatment and, in our experience, presents few problems.

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