Posted: 05/22/05 - 02:00 Post subject: Diverticulitus surgery
My elder sister is 60 years old and she has been diagnosed with diverticular disease. She has had a couple of episodes of diverticulitus and she had to be on diet. That was very hard to her because it was liquid diet along with antibiotics. He wanted Diverticulitus surgery but she is afraid. Can you tell us when this surgery is recommended?
Most of the people over 60 have small pouches, called diverticula in the wall of the colon. Presence of those pouches is called diverticulosis. Usually there are no symptoms, but some patients may get spasms in abdomen and colon. Also it is reported, but very rare bleeding, infection and inflammation or so called diverticulitus. This is what leads to abdominal pain, fever and change in bowel habits. Most of the cases can be treated with antibiotics and healing soon occurs. Sometimes hospitalization is necessarily. An abscess may form in the abdomen and then urgent surgery of diverticulitus is required. Goal is removing the part of the colon that is causing the infection. When diverticulitus is recurrent, elective surgery often is recommended to remove colon that contains diverticula’s.
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