Surgery and Diverticulitis

This is a very interesting post about surgery and Diverticulitis.

It is quite long and worth going to the post to have a complete read. But for now a few sections that I clipped out and think are very interesting.

I should add this: surgery for diverticular disease is gratifying. It's rare to have further problems after having the diseased area removed, and the comparatively small section that's typically taken out leads to no side effects at all. So it's a pretty happy group of patients. It is that for which we surgeons shoot.

Surgeonsblog: Ken's Colon

Surgery for diverticular disease involves navigating numerous grey-zones, and a few of crystal clarity. Seeing someone exsanguinate is a sure signal to swing the scalpel. Bleeding from a diverticulum can be steady and severe. But even when the need to operate is obvious, the target may not be; so the extent of the operation can be in doubt, going in. Less likely nowadays, with better imaging and shorter delays in obtaining it, going to the OR with uncertainty as to which part of the colon contains the bleeder wasn't rare only a few years back. And the nature of diverticular bleeding is that it can stop and start randomly. The stopping, perversely, seems to like to happen just as the patient enters the imaging suite. So, short of unrelenting bleeding, there's a certain degree to which deciding when and if to operate is a crap-shoot. (Pun intended? You decide.)

Surgeonsblog: Ken's Colon

I should add this: surgery for diverticular disease is gratifying. It's rare to have further problems after having the diseased area removed, and the comparatively small section that's typically taken out leads to no side effects at all. So it's a pretty happy group of patients. It is that for which we surgeons shoot.