[Surgical treatment of complicated diverticular disease of the colon]

The present study analyzes the results obtained by the AA with the different types of surgery adopted in the treatment of the complicated diverticulosis of the colon, highlighting, on the basis of data available in literature, the possible treatments in the different clinical settings. A retrospective study analyzing type of complication, the surgical technique adopted, Hinchey stage, mortality and morbidity rates and average hospital stay correlated with the kind of intervention has been carried out on 83 surgical interventions performed between 1984 and 1988. The results show that 43 R.A.P. (R.A.P. = primitive anastomosis resection) (32 cases at the I-II stage and 11 cases at the III-IV stage), 27 Hartmann (11 at the I-II and 16 at the III-IV), 9 colostomies (2 at the I-II and 7 at the III-IV), 2 esteriorizations and 2 simple drains have been carried out on a total of 44 intestinal perforations, 16 recurrent diverticulitis, 13 intestinal occlusions, 2 fistulae, 5 abscesses and 3 hemorrhages. The total mortality rate amounts to 10.6%; the morbidity rate of the R.A.P. interventions to 14.4 (I-II stage-related morbidity = 15.6%, III-IV stage = 63.6%), Hartmann's to 9.6% and that of the colostomies to 3.6%. Furthermore, in this work, we have considered the cases of riconversation after Hartmann interventions (9 cases): in the second operations the mortality and morbility rate amounts to 0 and the hospital stay to 9 days. The AA analyze on the surgical technique adopted in the different cases and the of choice criteria. According to the data obtained and to current literature, it results that the primitive anastomosis resection represents the first choice intervention at the I-II stage, although, in selected cases, it can be carried out also at the III-IV stage. Hartmann surgery confirms its effectiveness while simple colostomy is no longer accepted in literature.