Surgical treatment of perforated diverticulitis of the sigmoid colon.

A retrospective review of 1353 cases of acute perforated sigmoid diverticulitis treated surgically demonstrates that those operations that resect or exteriorize the perforated segment at the first operation are associated with a lower operative mortality rate than procedures that fail to remove the perforated segment at the initial operation. These results are true for both diffuse peritonitis and localized abscess.