Findings in patients with diverticulosis and diverticulitis of the colon

During the period from 1957 up to and including December 1975, the surgical clinic of Nijmegen admitted 82 patients with the diagnoses of diverticulosis and diverticulitis of the colon: the diagnosis of diverticulosis was made in 16 cases; in 17 diverticulitis was diagnosed and these patients were treated by conservative methods. Forty-nine patients were subjected to operation for diverticulitis. Of the patients treated conservatively, none died; of those treated by operation, three (6%) died. There were nine patients with peritonitis and three with ileus who required emergency surgery. As a matter of principle these patients were treated in several stages; none of them died.