DIVERTICULOSIS AND DIVERTICULITIS OF SIGMOID COLON - A CONTRIBUTION TO PATHOGENESIS OF SCLEROSIS OF SIGMOID COLON

Reference to morphological findings, histological pictures and clinical observations the importance of incomplete diverticula of the sigmoid is discussed with. These are the true starting-points of so-called sigmoiditis, which is characterized by inflammatory changes in the wall of the sigmoid combined with absence of radiologically visible diverticula. But incomplete diverticula are not only the origin of the sigmoiditis. If they are accompanied by complete diverticula or their initial forms, they cause a narrowing of the necks of the complete diverticula and so have to be regarded as pathmakers for the inflammation of the latter - which means the diverticulitis. This correlation is identical with a necessary progression of the inflammatory changes reaching from the simple rigidity of the intestinal wall to the complicated diverticulitis. © 1968 S. Karger AG, Basel.