Year 1938: First recognition of the perianal disease as part of Crohn's disease

Crohn's disease is characterised by its aetiological, pathophysiological, and especially clinical complexity. It can manifest in many ways and in many locations. Surely one major cause of suffering is perianal disease. It is curious that, as early as 1938, it was recognized (by the same team that described it) that luminal intestinal disease was often accompanied by fissures, fistulas and/or abscesses in the perianal area. And not only this, given that they were able to recognize the importance of the inflammatory activity of the luminal disease, the difficulty of treatment, and the particular refractoriness of rectovaginal fistulas, or how sometimes perianal disease is the first manifestation of Crohn's disease. Eighty-one years later, perianal disease continues to be a complex phenotype of Crohn's disease, causing uncomfortable and serious conditions in patients, and with technical difficulties to treatment for doctors and especially for specialised surgeons.