TRUE CECAL DIVERTICULITIS

Nine patients (six females and three males), median age =27.5 years (r ange 13-36) with caecal diverticulitis are presented, All underwent su rgery with a suspected diagnosis of acute appendicitis, Per-operative diagnosis was possible in five cases, two cases were thought to have o ther benign pathology, but malignancy could not be excluded in the rem aining two cases, Local excision was carried out in five cases, a righ t hemicolectomy was performed in the rest, Histology showed true diver ticuli in eight cases, severity of the inflammation made it difficult to comment on the ninth case, Postoperative barium enema was carried o ut in six cases, which showed no further diverticuli in the colon, We conclude that preoperative diagnosis of caecal diverticulitis is diffi cult, and that true solitary caecal diverticuli present in a younger a ge group than the false caecal and ascending colon diverticuli and tha t they are probably congenital in origin.