Conservative treatment for patients with acute right colonic diverticulitis

Little is known about the natural history of right colonic diverticulitis treated with conservative management. The purpose of this study was to analyze the short-term outcome of a conservative approach to the treatment of patients with acute right colonic diverticulitis. A retrospective review of the clinical and radiological findings of 62 patients with acute right colonic diverticulitis was carried out. Conservative treatment was provided to 47 patients and surgical treatment to 15 patients with the diagnosis of acute right colonic diverticulitis. An initial ultrasound was performed in 45 of 62 patients (73%) and a CT was performed in 16 of 62 patients (26%). Diverticulitis was confirmed pretreatment diagnosis in 56 of 61 (91.8%) patients who had radiological evaluation. There were seven (11.3%) pericolic abscesses identified as a complication of the diverticulitis. All 47 patients who received conservative management were successfully treated and had improvement of symptoms with no sign of clinical deterioration. For the fifteen patients who had surgery: 5 had right hemicolectomies, 8 had appendectomies without diverticulectomy, 1 had an appendectomy with diverticulectomy, and 1 had diverticulectomy alone. During a median followup of 23.9 months, two of 55 (3.6%) patients who did not have surgical resection for inflamed diverticulum had recurrences one and ten months after the initial treatment; they were successfully treated again with bowel rest and antibiotics without complication. Conservative treatment should be considered as a safe and effective option for acute right colonic diverticulitis. In addition, a less aggressive approach may be more suitable for recurrent diverticulitis than extended surgical resection.