Abstract
Abstract Aims Historical guidelines recommended routine colonoscopy some weeks after an episode of acute diverticulitis. Our project aimed to analyse outpatient follow up in our unit for patients with a clinical diagnosis of uncomplicated diverticulitis who did not require any inpatient investigations or intervention. Following on from this we proposed a pathway to standardise follow up care in this group of patients. Methods A retrospective audit was undertaken of outpatient follow up received by all patients coded with a primary clinical diagnosis of diverticulosis or uncomplicated diverticulitis in 2015, 2017 and 2019. Follow up investigations included a colonoscopy, flexible sigmoidoscopy, CT colonogram (CTC) or none of the above due to frailty or recent endoscopic investigation within the previous 2 years. Results Overall 118 patients were included in the audit. There was a reduction in patients who had a clinical diagnosis of uncomplicated diverticulitis in the second and third cycle of the audit from 67 to 22 and 29 respectively. This overall led to less outpatient endoscopic evaluation. Conclusion Departmental consensus guided the formation of a standardised pathway whereby appropriate patients without any colonic investigation within the last 24 months were investigated with an outpatient CTC six weeks after discharge. This led to a significant reduction in outpatient colonoscopy numbers.
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