Colonic diverticular bleeding: urgent colonoscopy without purging and endoscopic treatment with epinephrine and hemoclips.

ABSTRACT

Diverticular disease is the most frequent cause of lower gastrointestinal bleeding. Most of the times, bleeding stops without any intervention but in 10-20% of the cases it is necessary to treat the hemorrhage. Several modalities of endoscopic treatment have been described after purging the colon. We present five cases of severe diverticular bleeding treated with injection of epinephrine and hemoclips. All the colonoscopies were performed without purging of the colon in an emergency setting, with correct visualization of the point of bleeding. Patients recovered well avoiding other aggressive procedures such as angiography or surgery.