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.
Sir Samuel Wilks first used the term ulcerative colitis in a case report in 1859. Therapy in those days relied on a variety of different diets and surgical procedures, and mortality was very high. In fact an early publication reports 43% mortality. The first effective drug introduced was sulphasalazine in the 1940s, the use of which may be attributed to the Swedish professor Nanna Svartz. Steroid treatment was established in the 1950s.