Surgical management of colonic diverticular disease:Discrepancy between right- and left-sided diseases

AIM:To compare the outcome of the surgical management of left-sided and right-sided diverticular disease.METHODS:The medical records of 77 patients who were surgically treated for diverticular disease between 1999 and 2010 in a tertiary referral hospital were retrospectively reviewed.The study population was limited to cases wherein the surgical specimen was confirmed as diverticulosis by pathology.Rightsided diverticula were classified as those arising from the cecum,ascending colon,and transverse colon,and those from the descending colon,sigmoid colon,and rectum were classified as left-sided diverticulosis.To assess the changing trend of occurrence of diverticulosis,data were compared with two previous studies of 51 patients.RESULTS:The proportion of left-sided disease cases was significantly increased compared to the results of our previous studies in 1994 and 2001,(27.5%vs48.1%,P<0.05).Moreover,no differences in gender,body mass index,multiplicity of the diverticula,fever,or leukocytosis were noted between patients with rightsided and left-sided disease.However,patients with right-sided disease were significantly younger(50.9year vs 64.0 year,P<0.01).Furthermore,left-sided disease was significantly associated with a higher incidence of complicated diverticulitis(89.2%vs 57.5%,P<0.01),combined resection due to extensive inflammation(21.6%vs 5.0%,P<0.05),operative complications(51.4%vs 27.5%,P<0.05),and in-hospital mortality(10.8%vs 0%,P<0.05),along with longer post-operative hospitalization duration(21.3±10.2 d vs 10.6±8.1 d,P<0.05).CONCLUSION:Compared with right-sided diverticular disease,the incidence of left-sided disease in Korea has increased since 2001 and is associated with worse surgical outcomes.