RT Journal
A1 BEARSE C
T1 ACute perforative diverticulitis of the colon in young persons
JF Journal of the American Medical Association
JO Journal of the American Medical Association
YR 1939
FD November 4
VO 113
IS 19
SP 1720
OP 1722
DO 10.1001/jama.1939.02800440024007
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.1939.02800440024007
AB Based on reports of unselected postmortem examination1 and on x-ray studies of the gastrointestinal tract of patients with abdominal symptoms,2 the incidence of diverticulosis of the colon averages about 5.9 per cent. The average incidence under the age of 30 years is about 0.31 per cent of all diverticulosis patients;3 therefore, the frequency of diverticulosis in persons under 30 years of age would be about 18 per hundred thousand of population.In an average of about 15 per cent of patients with diverticulosis diverticulitis develops,4 and approximately 21 per cent of these require surgical intervention,5 or about 3 per cent of diverticulosis patients. For the entire population the incidence of operation would be about 186 cases per hundred thousand of population, and for persons under 30 years of age, diverticulitis requiring operation would occur in no more than 5.7 patients in 1,000,000 of population.It