Psoas Abscess in Inflammatory Bowel Disease

The inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is sometimes complicated by the development of a psoas abscess. We recently encountered three patients of IBD with psoas abscess. Two patients had Crohn's ileocolitis and one with ulcerative colitis. During 1979-1984, 23 patients with psoas abscess due to a variety of underlying disease processes were seen at our institution. At the same time period, 483 cases of Crohn's disease and 283 cases of ulcerative colitis were encountered. Therefore, of 766 patients with IBD only three were complicated by psoas abscess (incidence ratio = 0.6%). Thus, psoas abscess was a very rare complication of IBD in patients seen at our institution. In our series of 23 psoas abscess patients, IBD was not a major causative factor. Additionally, to our knowledge, psoas abscess complicating ulcerative colitis has not been reported previously.