Surgical Management of Complicated Diverticulitis

Abstract

Diverticular disease is a prevalent condition that affects more people as they get older. Even though some patients have colonic diverticulosis with no symptoms and then require no treatment, some of the patients affected with this disease present repeated episodes of inflammation and end up requiring surgical treatment in an elective or urgent setting. When an acute episode of diverticulitis arises, it may require surgery, and these procedures are often challenging even for specialized colorectal surgeons. Furthermore, a lot has been written in the last years about what to do in an urgent scenario, ranging from just making a lavage of the abdominal cavity, to making a colonic resection with or without primary anastomosis (which brings more debate into the topic). Therefore, a chapter explaining the evidence-based management of acute colonic diverticulitis seems a relevant topic for this chapter.