[Sigmoid diverticular pathology. Apropos of a homogeneous series of 82 cases]

The authors report a retrospective series of 82 cases of sigmoid diverticulosis which revealed the following points: surgery is rarely performed on "cold" disease but for acute or chronic complications, diverticular disease is very often present for a very long time and the doctor or the patient has refused operation for various reasons, whenever possible, infection must be eradicated as first line treatment and continuity must be restored under protection of a right transverse colostomy which is closed 4 to 6 weeks later. The authors prefer this approach to Hartmann's operation, in which the restoration of colonic continuity appears to be more delicate and which tends to prevent the surgeon from performing a sufficiently low inferior section, the source of poor long-term results. There was no postoperative mortality in this series, which may be due to the special environment in which surgery was performed. It is preferable to operate patients with "cold" diverticulosis before the development of complications, which allows simpler one-stage surgery requiring a shorter and therefore less expansive hospital stay.