Aetiological theories of inflammatory bowel disease

This review should make it clear to even the most wishful thinkers among us that no aetiological theory has yet produced the key to the mystery of IBD. At this stage of our knowledge, we cannot predict whether the cause of ileitis and colitis will eventually be unearthed by further exploration along the immunological, microbiological, psychosomatic, vascular, dietary, and other avenues outlined in this chapter, or whether - as so often happens in biomedical science - it will be stumbled across serendipitously, perhaps by a veterinary pathologist, food technologist, dental technician, or water pollution control engineer. For the moment, the only practical approach appears to be to keep working in good faith along all traditional pathways, while keeping our minds receptive to unconventional ideas and our lines of communication open to investigators from many far-flung disciplines.