Is Primary Anastomosis Safe in the Surgical Management of Complications of Acute Diverticulitis?

The purpose of this article is to determine whether primary anastomosis is a safe option in the surgical management of complications of acute diverticulitis in low-risk patients. Over the past century, the management of diverticulitis has evolved from a three-stage procedure to resection and primary anastomosis. In the beginning of the century, Mayo described drainage and proximal colostomy, a three-stage procedure. This was done by performing a diverting colostomy but leaving the diseased segment of colon, hoping that the inflammation would subside. Later, the patient went back for resection of the diseased segment. Then a third procedure was performed for reversal of the colostomy. Around the late 1970s to early 1980s, it was found that patients had better outcomes if the diseased segment was resected during the first operation–the Hartman procedure. During the late 1990s to early 2000s, some surgeons began performing resection and primary anastomosis in selected groups of patients with diverticulitis. There have been a number of studies published showing that resection and primary anastomosis has an acceptable morbidity and mortality. However, most of these studies are retrospective and do not achieve statistical significance. They also do not attempt to establish guidelines to help decide which patients are good candidates for resection and primary anastomosis. The goal of this study is to establish safe and reasonable practice guidelines that can be applied to a selected group of (low-risk) patients. This study is a retrospective review of all the patients treated surgically for complications of acute diverticulitis from 1998 to 2003 at United Hospital Medical Center in Port Chester, New York. Patients were classified as high or low risk based on their age, APACHE II score, American Society of Anesthesiologists class, and Hinchey score. There were a total of 66 patients operated on for complications of acute diverticulitis (left-sided) over this 5-year period. Thirty-six of them underwent resection and primary anastomosis and 30 underwent the Hartman procedure. Of the 36 who underwent resection and primary anastomosis, 19 were considered low risk. There were no complications in this low-risk group who underwent primary anastomosis. Patients who were low risk based on the mentioned criteria can safely undergo resection and primary anastomosis.