Acute Diverticulitis

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

The acquired form of diverticular disease is extremely common in Western society, affecting approximately 5 to 10 percent of the population over 45 years old and almost 80 percent of those over 85.1 It is estimated that symptomatic diverticulitis will develop in only 20 percent of patients with diverticula. The terms diverticulosis and diverticular disease usually refer simply to the presence of uninflamed diverticula. The scheme devised by Hinchey et al.2 is a useful way to classify the varieties of inflammatory conditions encountered in patients with diverticular disease. Stage I encompasses patients with small confined pericolonic abscesses, whereas patients with . . .