Historical perspective
As with a wide range of diagnoses, the first case reports of inflammatory bowel disease date back to the Hippocratic writings. Naturally, it is impossible to make a statement regarding the exact diagnosis based on these reports.
In 1932 Drs. Crohn, Ginzburg and Oppenheimer, from Mount Sinai Hospital, New York published their report on a new disease entity, regional enteritis. This became known as Crohn’s disease. It was not until 1960 that it was recognised that Crohn’s disease could also involve the colon.