Fistula and conditions associated with diverticular disease of the colon
Small, W.P.; Smith, A.N.
Clinics in Gastroenterology 4(1): 171-199
1975
ISSN/ISBN: 0300-5089 PMID: 1167350 Document Number: 4152
Fistula. as a complication of diverticular disease, comes next in frequency to obstruction and abscess formation. Indeed, the three complications may be interrelated. Fistula may follow spontaneous tracking of an abscess or its surgical drainage, while obstruction, if not directly responsible for the formation of a fistula, is certainly concerned with its perpetuation. Persistence in the face of medical treatment or conservative surgical management such as local drainage or proximal colostomy is a feature of all fistulae associated with diverticular disease. A fistula may be the culmination of an acute febrile illness with abdominal manifestations followed later by obvious pericolic suppuration, or there may be no history of bowel disorder and fistula then becomes the first and only clinical evidence of disease. In the subsequent investigation it is valuable to reflect that diverticular disease is the commonest cause of pelvic colon fistula.
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