Therapeutic barium enema for bleeding colonic diverticula: Four case series and review of the literature

Table 1 Cases undergoing therapeutic barium enema for diverticular hemorrhage

Case	1	2	3	4
Gender	M	M	M	M
Age (yr)	63	67	76	63
Associated diseases	HT,DM	HT	HT	None
NSAID, L-Asp, Anticoagulants	None	NSAID	None	None
Previous bleeding episodes (n)	2	2	1	1
Location	Throughout the colon	Throughout the colon	Ascending sigmoid	Ascending
Appearance	AC, FB	FB	FB	AC
Hemorrhagic site	NI	NI	NI	NI
Follow-up period (mo)	35	23	20	17
Recurrent bleeding	None	None	None	None

NI: Not identified; AC: Adherent clot; FB: Fresh blood; HT: Hypertension; DM: Diabetes mellitus; NSAID: Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug; L-Asp: Low-dose aspirin.

Table 2 Previous reports on therapeutic barium enema for diverticular hemorrhage

Author, year	n	Location	Concentration of barium	Successful cases	Recurrent bleeding
Adams et al 1970	28	NR	NR (20%)1	26	9
Chorost et al 2000	1	TO	20%	1	0
Koperna et al 2001	63	NR	NR	53	10
Matsuhashi et al 2003	1	AC, TC, SC	200% (with 1 mg of epinephrine)	1	0
Our cases 2008	4	TO	200%	4	0
		AC, SC (2 cases)
		AC

¹Mentioned in the discussion section. TO: Throughout the colon; AC: Ascending colon; NR: Not reported; SC: Sigmoid colon; TC: Transverse colon.