[Complicated colonic diverticulosis. Changes in treatment and results over 22 years].

Objectives: The aim of this study was to analyse the clinical course, surgical strategy and results in patients with complicated colonic diverticular disease.

Methods: We retrospectively compared two groups of patients who underwent surgery for complicated colonic diverticulosis from 1970 to 1984 (Group A, n = 94, mean age 60 years, 49 males, 45 females) and from 1985 to 1992 (Group B, n = 76, mean age 63.5, 32 males, 44 females).

Results: Patients in the two groups were comparable; only the rate of peritonitis (20 vs 8%) was different (p < 0.05). The most frequent operations in Group A were colostomy-drainage (43%) and Hartman's procedure (26%) in emergency situations and resection with immediate anastomosis (63%) or resection-anastomosis with diverting stomy (19%) in elective cases. In Group B, surgical strategy led to a different pattern of operations, 4 and 56% in emergency, and 94 and 2% in elective surgery, respectively. Overall mortality was 11%, with 17% and 4% in Groups A and B respectively (p < 0.01). This major drop in mortality was particularly important in emergency cases (31 vs 4%; p < 0.02). Morbidity in emergency surgery fell from 21 to 4% (P < 0.0006). Interrupting the use of colostomy-drainage was a major factor in reducing mortality followed by a sharp fall in mortality after Hartmann's procedure (28.5 vs 0%).

Conclusion: The marked improvement in results between the two groups was mainly due to preferring resections of pathological colonic segments over colostomy-drainage.