Surgical treatment of acute diverticulitis of the large intestine

: The authors analyze in this paper covering a ten-year period (1990-1999) a group of patients with acute perforated diverticulitis. The patients were classified according to Hinchey's classification. During this period 35 patients were operated with a high preoperative morbidity. With regard to the low number of complications of acute diverticulitis the authors do not prefer early preventive resections of non-complicated diverticulitis, but they tend to extend indications, first of all in cases of repeated recurrences, haemorrhage and in case of stenosis. In the IIIrd and IVth stage according to Hinchey's classification dominates Hartmann's operative procedure. But the authors agree with the trend to perform resection with primary anastomosis in the IIIrd stage, especially in cases of a good status of the patient and short duration of the disease. In cases of acute perforated diverticulitis operated in the first 24-hour interval the mortality rate was 23.1%.