Surgical Treatment for Diverticular Disease of the Colon

Chung, He Doo; Park, Kyu Joo; Heo, Seung Chul; Kang, Sung Bum

Abstract

PURPOSE
To evaluate clinical features of patients who underwent surgical treatment for diverticular disease of the colon.
METHODS
We retrospectively reviewed the hospital records of 27 patients who were surgically treated for diverticular disease of colon at the Seoul National University Hospital from July 1993 to September 1999. We also compared our data with that of previous study of 24 patients surgically treated for the same disease from March 1982 to June 1993.
RESULTS
Although the changes in the distribution of age and sex are not remarkable, increment of total number of left side colonic diverticular disease was noted (from 3 cases among 24 cases in previous study to 11 cases among 27 cases in this study). In contrast to all of right side diverticulitis were classified to stage I or II, half of left side diseases were advanced to stage III or IV by Hinchey's severity classification. Patients with right side diverticular disease were treated with surgical resection of diseased colon with low postoperative morbidity. On the other hand, patients with left side diverticular disease were treated with variety of surgical modalities from drainage alone to staged operation and there were relatively high postoperative complications including 3 cases of reoperation due to peritonitis, and one case of reoperation due to recurred diverticular disease.
CONCLUSIONS
Recent increment in surgical treatment for left side diverticular disease of the colon was noted. Operations for left side colonic diverticular disease, associated with relatively advanced disease stage, exhibited high emergency operation rate and complications.