inflammation of the rectum. Symptoms are ineffectual straining to empty the bowels (tenesmus), diarrhoea, and often bleeding. Proctitis is invariably present in ulcerative colitis and sometimes in Crohn's disease, but may occur independently (idiopathic proctitis ). Rarer causes include damage by irradiation (for example in radiation therapy for cervical cancer), by lymphogranuloma venereum, or after a colostomy has rendered the rectum nonfunctional (disuse proctitis ).