ACQUIRED DIVERTICULA OF THE COLON: A STUDY OF THE END-RESULTS IN FORTY-FOUR CASES

Seventy years have elapsed since Cruveilhier 1 gave the medical world an anatomic description of the sacculations or outpocketings from the wall of the bowel which are known today as acquired diverticula. In 1853, Virchow 2 pointed out the presence of isolated, circumscribed, adhesive peritonitis of the colon, found most frequently at its various flexures. He was aware of some pathologic process which produced local inflammatory changes in the intestinal wall, in its coverings and in the mesentery and organs immediately surrounding it. He gave a perfect description of peridiverticulitis, but failed to appreciate what lay behind the condition he was describing. Windsheid, 3 in 1889, added further description of similar cases, but it was not till Graser, 4 toward the close of the century (1899), demonstrated the association of acquired diverticula with these pathologic changes that a clear understanding of the condition was attained. Since then many other writers,