Several factors affecting the severity and outcomes of diverticulitis have been reported, but there is little research on physician specialty related with this disease. Therefore, we evaluated the clinical characteristics and outcomes of diverticulitis depending on physician's specialty.

Medical records of 239 patients, who had been hospitalized with first-diagnosed acute colonic diverticulitis at Kyung Hee University Hospital in Gang Dong (Seoul, Korea) from June 2006 to December 2012, were retrospectively analyzed. The patients were classified according to whether they had been managed by gastroenterologists or not. Clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes were compared between two groups.

Of these 239 patients, 38 (15.9%) patients were treated by a gastroenterologist and 201 (84.1%) patients by a non-gastroenterologist. Clinical characteristics such as age, gender, body mass index, comorbidity, medication, laboratory results, recurrence and complication were not significantly different between two groups. However, right-sided diverticulitis predominated in the non-gastroenterologist group (79% vs. 91%, P =0.028). From the sub-group analysis of uncomplicated diverticulitis, intravenous antibiotics was used for a shorter period of time by gastroenterologists than non-gastroenterologists (3.3±1.9 days vs. 4.4±2.8 days, P =0.032). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the 3 day administration of intravenous antibiotics significantly depended on the physician's specialty (odds ratio 7.984, 95% confidence interval 1.990-32.043, P =0.003).

The results suggest that the duration of intravenous antibiotics for treating uncomplicated colonic diverticulitis was shortened by gastroenterology specialists without increasing operation or recurrence.