[Infectious complications of diverticular sigmoiditis: can the failure of medical treatment be predicted?]

A retrospective study of case histories of 36 patients with infectious complications of sigmoid diverticulitis (excluding peritonitis) compared clinical, biologic and radiologic signs in a group responding favorably to medical treatment (24 cases) and a group requiring surgery after a mean of 9 days of treatment in a surgical ward (12 cases). Six signs were found to be related to the course of the disease: a painful left iliac mass on admission, persistence or increase in pain after 48 hours, absence of restoration of normal intestinal transit, temperature below 36.5 degrees C or above 37.8 degrees C, leucocytosis of less than 2,500 or more than 13,500/mm3, evidence of radiologic stenosis by simple contrast enema. A prospective study could assess the prognostic value of these signs as determinants of failure to respond to medical treatment.