Long-term Follow-up After an Initial Episode of Diverticulitis: A 13- Year Update

Background: For patients with recurrent diverticulitis, the trigger to proceed to elective sigmoid colectomy is unclear. Current clinical practice guidelines suggest this is an individualized decision between surgeon and patient.

Objective: To assess long-term risk of diverticulitis recurrence and determine predictors of recurrent disease.

Design: Retrospective case series.

Setting: Tertiary care center.

Patients: Consecutive patients with CT-proven diverticulitis who presented as inpatient or outpatient between 2002-2008.

Interventions: Incidence of diverticulitis recurrence determined via chart review and questionnaire.

Main outcome measures: Risk of recurrent diverticulitis or surgery for diverticulitis.

Results: A total of 753 patients with first-time diverticulitis were identified. Patients were 61.5 years old (SD 15.3). Median follow-up was 13.2 years (IQR 3.8-18.3). There were 486 (64.5%) patients alive at time of follow-up. During initial presentation, 29 (3.9%) required IR drainage and 37 (4.9%) required emergency surgery. Forty-three (5.7%) underwent elective surgery after initial presentation, and 77 (10.2%) underwent surgery after more than 1 episode. Of those without surgery for first episode, 353 (52.4%) experienced recurrent disease with median time to recurrence of 2.9 years (IQR 0.83-8.5 years). On multivariate analysis, female sex (HR 1.28, p = 0.04), sigmoid disease (HR 1.35, p = 0.03), smoldering disease (HR 3.17, p < 0.01), length of involved segment >5 cm (HR 1.28, p = 0.04), and maximum fat stranding diameter >1.8 cm (HR 1.29, p = 0.03) were associated with disease recurrence. Kaplan Meier estimates of freedom from recurrence were 73.1% (69.6-76.3%) at 1 year, 47.9% (44.0-51.6%) at 5 years, and 34.6% (31.0-38.2%) at 10 years following initial presentation.

Limitations: Retrospective design.

Conclusions: After a single episode of diverticulitis, incidence of recurrence is more than 50% on long-term follow-up. Variables such as female sex, sigmoid disease, smoldering disease, length of involved segment greater than 5 cm, and maximum fat stranding diameter greater than 1.8 cm were associated with an increased risk of recurrence. These findings should be considered when counseling patients on decision to proceed with elective colectomy. See Video Abstract.