Abstract

Nine patients (six females and three males), median age = 27.5 years (range 13-36) with caecal diverticulitis are presented. All underwent surgery with a suspected diagnosis of acute appendicitis. Per-operative diagnosis was possible in five cases, two cases were thought to have other benign pathology, but malignancy could not be excluded in the remaining two cases. Local excision was carried out in five cases, a right hemicolectomy was performed in the rest. Histology showed true diverticuli in eight cases, severity of the inflammation made it difficult to comment on the ninth case. Postoperative barium enema was carried out in six cases, which showed no further diverticuli in the colon. We conclude that preoperative diagnosis of caecal diverticulitis is difficult, and that true solitary caecal diverticuli present in a younger age group than the false caecal and ascending colon diverticuli and that they are probably congenital in origin.