Epidemiology of colonic diverticula and recent advances in the management of colonic diverticular bleeding.

Abstract

There is the East-West paradox in prevalence and phenotype of colonic diverticula, but colonic diverticular bleeding (CDB) is the most common cause of acute lower gastrointestinal bleeding worldwide. Death from CDB can occur in elderly patients with multiple comorbidities, thus the management of CDB is clinically pivotal amid the aging populations in the East and West. Colonoscopy is the key modality for managing the condition appropriately; however, conventional endoscopic hemostasis by thermal coagulation and clipping cannot achieve the expected results of preventing early rebleeding and conversion to intensive intervention by surgery or transcatheter arterial embolization. Ligation therapy by endoscopic band ligation or endoscopic detachable snare ligation has emerged recently to enable more effective hemostasis for CDB, with an early rebleeding rate of approximately 10% and very rare conversion to intensive intervention. Ligation therapy might in turn reduce long-term rebleeding rates by eliminating the target diverticulum itself. Adverse events have been reported with ligation therapy including diverticulitis of the ascending colon in less than 1% of cases and perforation of the sigmoid colon in a few cases, thus more data are necessary to verify the safety of ligation therapy. Endoscopic hemostasis is indicated only for diverticulum with stigmata of recent hemorrhage (SRH), but the detection rates of SRH are relatively low. Therefore, efforts to increase detection are also key for improving CDB management. Urgent colonoscopy and triage by early contrast-enhanced computed tomography may be candidates to increase detection but further data are necessary in order to make a conclusion.