Advances in management of patients with acute diverticulitis

Objective: To analyse the development of the medical and surgical treatment of acute diverticulitis to develop an appropriate decision-making algorithm. Methods: We analysed the demographic characteristics, radiological images, disease severity, treatments and surgical outcomes of all of the patients with a diagnosis of acute diverticulitis admitted to the Department of General and Emergency Surgery between 1 January 2009 and 30 June 2014. Results: During the 66-month study period, 219 patients with acute diverticulitis attended our department; 69% had simple diverticulitis (93% were treated conservatively and 7% surgically) and 31% had complicated diverticulitis (76% were treated surgically and 24% conservatively). Of the patients who were treated surgically, 62.5% underwent primary resection with anastomosis, 31.94% Hartmann's procedure, and 5.56% laparoscopic lavage and drainage. Conclusions: Our cases and a careful review of the literature allowed us to develop a decision-making algorithm for patients with acute diverticulitis.