Diverticulitis – Symptoms

Transcript

So what are the symptoms of diverticulitis? Diverticulitis symptoms can vary between acute and chronic diverticulitis and also the degree of inflammation involved. In acute diverticulitis, when there’s sudden inflammation of the involved [?] of colon, patients may develop abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting, fever, and chills and change in bowel habits. These change in bowel habits may range from obstipation, which is a lack of bowel movements, to diarrhea. In more moderate to severe cases of diverticulitis, sometimes abscesses formation may form, which is a fluid collection, which is infected inside. Perforation may also occur, which is a hole in the wall of the colon. And this requires emergent surgical evaluation. In terms of chronic diverticulitis, when there’s repeated bouts of inflammation in an involved segment of colon, sometimes stricture formation may occur, and some patients may present with obstructive symptoms, which may include abdominal distention, nausea, and vomiting and obstipation. In some other instances, fistula formation may form, which is a channel between two adjacent organs. For example, a channel may form between the colon and the bladder, which is called a colovesicular fistula.