Chronic diverticulitis: clinical, radiographic, and pathologic findings.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of our study is to present a series of 14 patients with chronic diverticulitis on barium enema examinations and to correlate the radiographic findings with the clinical and pathologic findings in these patients.

CONCLUSION: Chronic diverticulitis is a distinct pathologic entity characterized by the frequent development of chronic obstructive symptoms and abdominal pain rather than the classic clinical findings of acute sigmoid diverticulitis. Barium enema examinations usually reveal a relatively long segment of circumferential narrowing in the sigmoid colon with a spiculated contour and tapered margins, sometimes associated with retrograde obstruction. Our experience suggests that chronic diverticulitis can often be diagnosed on the basis of the characteristic clinical and radiographic findings in these patients.