Success in treatment of complicated diverticular disease is stage related

The clinical stage of disease is one of the many factors affecting outcome after treatment for complicated diverticular disease. We retrospectively as sessed surgical results during the period 1994-1999 in 406 patients with co mplicated diverticular disease, according to the stage of disease, surgical technique, postoperative complications, and mortality. Single-stage resect ion and primary anastomosis were performed safely in most patients with sta ge I or II disease. Severe complications were rare in stage I but increased in incidence with higher stages. Patients with stage III are a high-risk g roup. This stage often requires a two-stage procedure (primary anastomosis and protective ileostoma or the Hartmann procedure). Despite these measures , many severe complications occurred in stage III.