Complications of Jejunal Diverticulosis

Although more than 300 cases of jejunal diverticulosis have been reported previously, most clinicians consider this lesion an unimportant postmortem finding and do not usually regard it seriously as a cause of abdominal symptoms. Recent experience with three cases of jejunal diverticulosis, two manifested by severe bleeding and a third by perforation and obstruction, has prompted this report and review of the literature. According to Walker, 1 Astley Cooper first described jejunal diverticulosis in 1807. The first roentgenographic demonstration of jejunal diverticula was in 1920 by Case. 2 The incidence of jejunal diverticulosis in routine gastrointestinal x-ray examinations has variously been reported as 5 in 6,847 (0.0006%), 2 as 1 in 5,000 (0.0002%), 3 and as 3 in 996 examinations (0.03%). 4 Autopsy series have been said to show jejunal diverticula in 9 of 2,820 routine autopsies (0.03% ), 5 and in 3 of 5,000 cases (0.0006%) 6 where such diverticula