Burrill Bernard Crohn published paper was "Regional Ileitis: A Pathologic and Clinical Entity". Crohn's work helped correct the thinking that the ailment was actually a form of tuberculosis rather than an inflammatory disease of the gastrointestinal tract. Crohn's work built on the work of Dr. Kennedy Dalziel of Glasgow into regional enteritis twenty years earlier. Crohn always preferred the medically descriptive terms "regional ileitis" and "regional enteritis" to "Crohn's disease", but he was not able to prevent the appropriation of his name for the disease. Some of Crohn's initial research into the causes of the Crohn's disease was centered around his personal conviction
Burrill Bernard Crohn help his father, Theodore, who suffered from severe indigestion. Crohn married Lucile Pels in 1912, and had two children, Edward Crohn (1917-2013), a physician, and Ruth Crohn Dickler (1914-2016) a New York City resident, known for her philanthropy. They divorced in 1927. He later married Rose Blumenthal in 1948. In addition to practicing medicine, Crohn enjoyed painting and studying history of the American Civil War. Crohn's watercolors were frequently displayed in galleries in New Milford, Connecticut. Crohn practiced medicine until he was 90, splitting time in his later years between the Upper East Side of Manhattan and a country home