Summary
New treatment policies for colonic diverticulitis have enlarged therapeutic options, resulting in a low consensus of international guidelines for the management of this disease. Swiss national guidelines are missing. Switzerland is traditionally characterized by a linguistic diversity, resulting in multiple regional differences across language borders. The Swiss health care system is organized in a decentralized manner. Accordingly, the management of colonic diverticulitis in Switzerland is not well characterized, and differences across language regions are likely.
The Swiss Snapshot Diverticulitis study evaluates the current practice of in-hospital management of colonic diverticulitis in Switzerland over a time period of three months. A subanalysis studying the consensus of treatment of acute colonic diverticulitis across language areas constitutes the basis of this master thesis.
Over a time period of three months, 783 patients with acute colonic diverticulitis were treated in 74 Swiss hospitals. Treatment policies were significantly different across language areas with respect to diagnostic modalities, nutrition,
intraoperative management of complicated diverticulitis, in particular the performance of a primary anastomosis or Hartmann’s procedure and follow-.‐up after hospital discharge. There was a consensus for conservative treatment approaches with nosignificant differences for the use of antibiotic regimens in patients with uncomplicated diverticulitis and the insertion of a percutaneous drainage in complicated diverticulitis patients.
The management of colonic diverticulitis features important regional differences across the Swiss language borders. National guidelines are necessary in order to treatment approaches.