ACUTE DIVERTICULITIS IN HEART-TRANSPLANT RECIPIENTS

Immunosuppressed patients are susceptible to complicated diverticuliti s, but reports of this complication are scarce in heart graft recipien ts, To estimate the prevalence of acute diverticulitis in heart graft recipients, we retrospectively reviewed the cases of diverticulitis in a series of 143 patients who underwent orthotopic heart transplantati on in a period of 10 years. Six (4%) of these developed acute divertic ulitis and required colectomy. All of them were male patients and were older than 50 years. Four patients underwent urgent laparotomy and co lon resection with end colostomy (Hartmann procedure), The two other p atients suffered from diverticulitis without generalized peritonitis a nd underwent laparoscopic sigmoidectomy with direct transanal end-to-e nd anastomosis. The postoperative outcomes of these six patients were satisfactory. As are other immunosuppressed patients, heart graft reci pients are susceptible to diverticulitis, Early surgical management ma y be safe in well-compensated patients.