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Diverticulitis
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Diverticulitis is a bowel problem caused by the bowel wall pushing out through weak spots to form little sacks or pockets in the wall. This is the condition of diverticulosis which about half of the Uk population have by the age of 70, and almost everyone has by the age of 80. These pockets can become infected or inflamed in 10 to 25% of cases and it is then called diverticulitis which causes pain in the abdomen. It is diagnosed by your doctor and may cause further complications unless brought under control. Diverticulosis is probably caused by constipation, and the best way to keep it under control is by eating a high fibre diet. High fibre supplements may ... help to keep it under control.
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Diverticulitis is inflammation in and around a diverticulum. The cause of diverticulitis is probably mechanical. The stagnation of nonsterile inspissated fecal material, termed a fecalith, within the diverticulum may compromise the blood supply to the thin-walled sac and render it susceptible to invasion by colonic bacteria, causing inflammatory erosion of the mucosal lining with perforation. This sequence of events can involve perforation into the colonic wall, with the formation of an intramural abscess. However, perforation usually occurs into the pericolic fat, leading to fibrinous exudate, abscess formation, local adhesions, or peritonitis. Most patients develop sealed-off abscesses or contained sinus tracts and fistulas.
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Diverticulitis occurs in people with diverticulosis. It most commonly affects the sigmoid colon, which is the last part of the large intestine just before the rectum. Diverticulitis is more common among people older than 40. It can be severe in people of any age, although it is most serious in the elderly, especially those taking corticosteroids or other drugs that suppress the immune system and ... increase the risk of infection. Among people younger than 50 who must undergo surgery for diverticulitis, men outnumber women 3 to 1. Among those older than 70, women outnumber men 3 to 1.
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Diverticulitis develops from a condition called diverticulosis. If you're older than age 40, it's common for you to have diverticulosis — small, bulging pouches (diverticula) in your digestive tract. In the United States, more than 50 percent of people older than 60 have diverticula. Although diverticula can form anywhere, including in your esophagus, stomach and small intestine, most occur in your large intestine. Because these pouches seldom cause any problems, you may never know you have them.
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Diverticulitis is common in industrialized nations such as the United States, where the average diet is high in refined carbohydrates and low in fiber. Physicians first observed the condition in the United States in the early 1900s, around the time processed foods became a mainstay of the American diet. Too little fiber contributes to small, hard stools that cause increased pressure in the colon.
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Diverticulitis is defined as an inflammation of one or more diverticula. Fecal material or undigested food particles may collect in a diverticulum. Obstruction of the neck of the diverticulum results in distension of the pouch secondary to mucous secretion and overgrowth of normal colonic bacteria. The thin-walled diverticulum, consisting solely of mucosa, is susceptible to vascular compromise and subsequent microperforation or macroperforation. This perforation may be the initiating event leading to symptomatic diverticular diseases. Disease is frequently mild when pericolic fat and mesentery wall-off a small perforation.
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Diverticulitis