[Treatment of acute sigmoid diverticulitis and development]

In acute diverticulitis of the sigmoid colon, the initial therapeutic decision is wether to employ medical or surgical treatment and, thereafter, wether elective resection of the involved bowel is needed. According to the criteria used for the diagnosis of diverticulitis and to the length of the medical follow-up 10 to 25 per cent of patients with diverticulosis will develop some form of peridiverticular inflammation. Adequate treatment of diverticulitis requires antimicrobial therapy directed against both facultative and obligate anaerobic gram-negative bacteria. Computed tomography is now widely regarded as the most informative modality in the diagnosis and the prognosis of extra-colonic extension of diverticulitis. Urgent operation or percutaneous drainage is required for paracolic abscess not confined to the mesocolon. Common indications for delayed operations are residual abscesses, stenosis, fistulae, well defined recurrent diverticulitis and failure to exclude a colonic carcinoma. However, recent prospectives studies have demonstrate that the high frequency of disease recurrence justify to propose prophylactic sigmoidectomy after the first attack of diverticulitis, especially if the patient is younger than 50 years, obese or immuno-compromised.