[Diagnosis and therapy of cecal diverticulitis]

Acute pain in the lower right side of the abdomen caused by caecal diverticulitis is very rare and hardly to distinguish from acute appendicitis. Therefore it is usually diagnosed intraoperatively. We report our experience with 12 patients, who received surgical treatment from 1984 to 1991. The diagnosis was made not before operation in 11 cases. Because of a severe inflammation of the caecal wall we performed an ileocaecal resection in 10 cases, in 2 cases it was necessary to perform a right hemicolectomy because of additional diverticulitis of the ascending colon. The surgical resection of the inflammatory mass was followed by an uncomplicated postoperative healing in all cases.