Treatment of diverticular disease of the colon and prevention of acute diverticulitis: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Diverticular disease of the colon is a common disorder, characterized by recurrent symptoms and complications such as diverticulitis, requiring hospital admissions and surgery. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to systematically review the evidence for medical therapy of diverticular disease in reducing symptoms and preventing acute diverticulitis. DATA SOURCES: MEDLINE and Embase databases (1966 to February 2010). STUDY SELECTION: The studies selected were prospective clinical trials on uncomplicated diverticular disease of the colon. INTERVENTIONS: Four investigators independently reviewed articles, extracted data, and assessed study quality according to standardized criteria. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The main outcomes measured were improvement in symptoms, complete remission of symptoms, and prevention of acute diverticulitis. RESULTS: We identified 31 studies, including 6 placebo-controlled trials. The methodological quality of these studies was suboptimal. Only 10 trials provided a detailed description of the patient history, 8 assessed symptoms by the use of a validated questionnaire, and 14 appropriately defined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Only one long-term double-blind placebo-controlled study was identified. This reported a significant improvement in symptoms and greater prevalence of symptom-free patients at 1 year with fiber plus rifaximin in comparison with fiber alone. The efficacy of treatment in preventing acute diverticulitis was evaluated in 11 randomized trials. Four trials compared rifaximin plus fiber vs fiber alone and failed to show a significant difference between treatments. However, cumulative data from these trials revealed a significant benefit following rifaximin and fiber (1-year rate of acute diverticulitis: 11/970 (1.1%) vs 20/690 (2.9%); P = .012), but with a number needed to treat of 57, to prevent an attack of acute diverticulitis. LIMITATIONS: : Heterogeneity of the study design, patients' characteristics, regimens and combination of studied treatment, and outcome reporting precluded the pooling of results and limited interpretation. CONCLUSIONS: The treatment for diverticular disease relies mainly on data from uncontrolled studies. Treatment showed some evidence of improvement in symptoms, but its role in the prevention of acute diverticulitis remains to be defined.

Medical and nutritional aspects of intractable diarrhea.

Diarrhea can be due to at least five pathogenetic mechanisms. Major examples of each are presented to better illustrate each type of diarrhea and to provide a springboard for discussion of the nutritional management of each class of diarrhea. Certainly, specific diseases require specific therapies, such as avoidance of gluten in adult coeliac disease, but the major dietary/nutritional alterations and subsequent treatment are similar for each class of disease. Nowhere in medicine and nutrition is an admonition to the health care team more important and more proper than in the treatment of chronic diarrheas: The feeding of healthy man, as well as the diet of the sick cannot be left to chance, guided by the appetite, or ruled by tradition, but can be safely directed only according to the laws of digestion and metabolism.

Diverticular disease.

Diverticular disease comprises a spectrum of illness beginning with the irritable bowel syndrome and progressing to the life-threatening complications of diverticulitis and hemorrhage. Step-wise progression of this disease may be seen but is not invariably present; many patients with diverticulosis do not have preceding symptoms of the irritable bowel syndrome. The typical complaints of irregularity of bowel habits and abdominal pain will usually respond to the relatively new treatment modality of a high fiber diet with added wheat bran. Barium enema x-ray examination remains the primary diagnostic modality in the investigation of diverticular disease, and colonoscopy should be used only in the presence of certain specific circumstances. Surgery, aimed at the treatment of complications of this disease, has progressed to the point where one-stage extirpation of the diseased bowel is recommended.

[Dietary fibre: more than a matter of dietetics. II. Preventative and therapeutic uses]. / Ballaststoffe: Mehr als ein Diätmittel. II. Präventive und therapeutische Anwendungen.

A nutrition rich in fibre has a preventive effect against constipation, colon diverticulosis, carcinoma of the large bowel and stomach, type 2-diabetes, metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease. In case of constipation, diverticulosis and diabetes this effect solely depends on dietary fibre. Regarding carcinomas and cardiovascular diseases, so far unknown factors integrated in or associated with fibre-rich food may also contribute to the preventive effect. Therapy with dietary fibre is indicated for constipation, colon diverticulosis, diarrhea, diabetes, and hypercholesterinemia. The individual dietary fibres differ substance-specifically. Food-integrated dietary fibre such as whole-grain bread, vegetables and fruit have their place in prevention. Dietary fibre preparations such as wheat bran, flax seed or sugar-beet fibre are useful in the treatment of constipation, colon diverticulosis and adiposity. Oat bran is preferentially used in hypercholesterinemia. Purified dietary fibres such as cellulose, guar, psyllium, and beta-glucan have an anti-diabetic, all viscous fibres an anti-lipaemic effect. The therapeutic dosages of dietary fibre preparations are 20-40 g/day and of purified fibres substances 10-20 g/day respectively.

High fibre diet in symptomatic diverticular disease of the colon.

Over the past decade fibre supplementation has achieved widespread acceptance in the management of symptomatic diverticular disease, although the efficacy of this treatment has been debated. We have conducted a retrospective review of 72 patients admitted to hospital with symptomatic diverticular disease over a ten year period in order to determine whether or not high fibre diet afforded protection against the development of complications, necessity for surgery or persistence of symptoms. Fifty-six patients were treated non-operatively, of these 43 received advice concerning a high fibre diet but only 31 patients complied. The 12 patients who failed to take additional fibre and the 13 patients who never received dietary advice (25 patients) formed the non high fibre group. Those treated with fibre supplementation fared significantly better in developing fewer complications and required less surgery (P less than 0.05). At the time of follow-up review patients on a high fibre diet reported significantly fewer symptoms (P less than 0.05).

Medical therapy of colonic diverticular disease.

Treatment of asymptomatic diverticulosis is geared to the prevention of constipation, with vigilance for possible signs of complications. A bulky stool decreases colonic intraluminal pressures, probably lessening pain and the chance of development of new diverticula. Increased stool weight may be achieved by the addition of vegetables, fruits, and cereals (bran) to the diet. Foods with undigestible residues should be avoided. When dietary manipulations are not well tolerated, hydrophilic bulk laxatives are a useful alternative. Treatment of acute attacks consists of bowel rest and administration of intravenous fluids and antibiotics. Side effects of anticholinergics may outweigh their questionable usefulness. Nonabsorable oral sulfonamides have little or no place in the treatment of the acute attack (peridiverticulitis).

Colonic diverticula. When complications require surgery and when they don't.

The value of a high-fiber diet in preventing and treating colonic diverticula is firmly established. Although the diagnosis of diverticulosis is usually made with colonoscopy or barium enema examination, computed tomography has become the test of choice during acute diverticulitis, when the diagnosis cannot be confidently made clinically. Recently developed surgical principles for diverticulitis include radiographically directed drainage with delayed operation for peridiverticular abscess, resection of the site of disease in patients with general peritonitis, and primary anastomosis in most cases requiring urgent intervention. Diverticulosis accompanied by abdominal pain or irregular bowel habits is by itself rarely an indication for surgery. Diverticular bleeding usually resolves spontaneously, but persistent bleeding can usually be successfully treated with segmental colectomy after localization of the bleeding site with colonoscopy or arteriography.

The treatment of uncomplicated diverticular disease of the colon with a high fibre diet.

This paper describes the pathogenesis, aetiology, epidemiology and the historical emergence of diverticular disease as a clinical problem. The symptoms of the uncomplicated disease can be treated successfully and cheapli with a high fibre diet including miller's bran. The method of giving bran and its results are described. The adoption of a high fibre diet lessens the need for surgery in diverticulitis and the author believes that it could prevent the appearance of the condition in future generations.

Answers to 10 key questions on diverticular disease of the colon.

Diverticular disease is common in industrialized countries, and will become more prevalent in the future. Although it is usually a benign condition, treatment with high-fiber diet may prevent complications such as infection, stricture, or bleeding.

A new look at diarrhoea, diverticulitis and 'colitis' after 25 years of clinical study.

The clinical features of fat-intolerant bowel disturbance, which have been established by study, over a period of 25 years, of bowel disturbance seen in dyspeptic and other patients, are described. Excess dietary fat intake is an etiological factor in the irritable colon syndrome, spastic colon, diverticulosis, and diverticulitis of the colon and in ulcerative and non-ulcerative colitis. All these conditions are manifestations of intolerance to excess dietary fat intake, and are controlled, and their symptoms are cured, by adherence to the fat-free diet: i.e. a diet from which is excluded any fat derived from cow's milk, from the pig, any 'store' or 'depot' fat, and any vegetable fat concentrate.