Acute diverticulitis in younger patients: Any rationale for a different approach?

Table 1 Clinical and laboratory features of the 2 groups of patients according to age n (%)

	Group A ( ≤50 yr)	Group B (> 50 yr)	P
Signs and symptoms
Abdominal pain	30 (96.7)	117 (92.8)	NS
Fever	9 (29.0)	30 (23.8)	NS
Acute abdomen	10 (32.3)	30 (23.8)	NS
Vomiting	5 (16.1)	26 (20.6)	NS
Constipation	3 (9.7)	23 (18.2)	NS
Diarrhea	2 (6.4)	13 (10.3)	NS
Laboratory
Leucocytosis (> 11 × 109)	24 (82.7)	67 (55.8)	0.01
Mean WBC count (× 109)	15.0	13.1	0.01
Mean CRP (mg/dL)	151.5	133.5	0.005

Group A (n = 31) and Group B (n = 126). WBC: White blood cell; CRP: C-reactive protein.

Table 2 Severity of disease (Hinchey classification) and surgical treatment of the 2 groups according to age n (%)

	Group A ( ≤50 yr)	Group B (> 50 yr)	P
Disease severity			0.01
Uncomplicated	27 (87.1)	80 (63.5)
Complicated	4 (12.9)	46 (36.5)
Complication grading			0.04
Grade I/II	3 (9.7)	30 (23.8)
Grade III/IV	1 (3.2)	16 (12.7)
Surgical treatment
Emergency surgery	1 (3.2)	18 (14.3)	0.03
Elective surgery	4 (16.1)	5 (4.0)	0.07

Table 3 Recurrence and severity of recurrent disease in the 2 groups according to age n (%)

	Group A ( ≤50 yr)	Group B (> 50 yr)	P
Disease recurrence			0.03
Non recurrent	23 (74.2)	112 (88.9)
Recurrent	8 (25.8)	14 (11.1)
Severity of recurrence			0.10
Non complicated	6 (75)	10 (71)
Complicated (Grade I)	2 (25)	4 (29)

Table 4 Multivariate analysis of recurrence factors in patients with diverticulitis

Factor	Binary regression logistics
	Exp (B)	P
Male gender	1.13	0.827
Age ≤ 50 yr	0.26	0.024
White blood cell count (× 109)	0.99	0.830
Severity index	1.08	0.798