Some patients who have diverticular disease develop complications or recurrent symptoms and medical therapy may be necessary. Findings from recent studies suggest that rifaximin, a poorly absorbed antibiotic, should be recommended for long-term treatment of diverticular disease; however, the anti-inflammatory drug mesalazine seems to be more promising in the long term.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Relevant articles
Open Access articles citing this article.
-
Effects of Burdock tea on recurrence of colonic diverticulitis and diverticular bleeding: An open-labelled randomized clinical trial
Scientific Reports Open Access 01 May 2019
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$209.00 per year
only $17.42 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Bogardus, S. T. Jr. What do we know about diverticular disease? A brief overview. J. Clin. Gastroenterol. 40 (Suppl. 3), S108–S111 (2006)
Etzioni, D. A., Mack, T. M., Beart, R. W. Jr & Kaiser, A. M. Diverticulitis in the United States: 1998–2005: changing patterns of disease and treatment. Ann. Surg. 249, 210–217 (2009).
Tursi, A. et al. Fecal calprotectin in diverticular disease: a case-control study. Int. J. Colorectal Dis. 24, 49–55 (2009).
Tursi, A. & Papagrigoriadis, S. The current and evolving treatment of colonic diverticular disease. Aliment. Pharmacol. Ther. 30, 532–546 (2009).
Tursi, A. New physiopathological and therapeutic approaches to diverticular disease of the colon. Expert Opin. Pharmacother. 8, 299–307 (2007).
Latella, G. et al. Rifaximin improves symptoms of acquired uncomplicated diverticular disease of the colon. Int. J. Colorectal Dis. 18, 55–62 (2003).
Scarpinato, C. & Pelosini, I. Experimental and clinical pharmacology of rifaximin, a gastrointestinal selective antibiotic. Digestion 73 (Suppl. 1), 15–38 (2006)
Hjern, F. et al. Conservative treatment of acute colonic diverticulitis: are antibiotics always mandatory? Scand. J. Gastroenterol. 42, 41–47 (2007).
Sutherland, L. & MacDonald, J. K. Oral 5-aminosalicylic acid for maintenance of remission in ulcerative colitis. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Issue 2. Art. No.: CD000544 doi:10.1002/14651858.CD000544.pub2 (2006).
Cohen, H. D. & Das, K. M. The metabolism of mesalamine and its possible use in colonic diverticulitis as an anti-inflammatory agent. J. Clin. Gastroenterol. 40 (Suppl. 3), S150–S154 (2006)
Jacobs, D .O. Clinical practice. Diverticulitis. N. Engl. J. Med. 357, 2057–2066 (2007).
Kruis, W. et al. Treatment of painful diverticular disease of the colon with mesalamine: a placebo-controlled study [abstract]. Gastroenterology 132, A-191 (S1187) (2007).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The author declares no competing financial interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tursi, A. What is the best long-term treatment?. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol 7, 77–78 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrgastro.2009.237
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrgastro.2009.237