Podcast 727: Antibiotics for Diverticulitis

Emergency Medical Minute

Contributor: Aaron Lessen, MD

Educational Pearls:

• Classically, diverticulitis is diagnosed via CT scan and patients are discharged home on antibiotics if they are without complication
• The DINAMO study is a multicenter open-label RCT that evaluated if it is safe to not give antibiotics to patients with mild acute diverticulitis
• Found no difference in readmission, return visits to ED, pain control, or likelihood of surgical intervention between the group that was sent home with antibiotics and the group without
• Medical societies have not reached a consensus on this issue, likely further studies need to be completed

References

Mora-López L, Ruiz-Edo N, Estrada-Ferrer O, et al. Efficacy and Safety of Nonantibiotic Outpatient Treatment in Mild Acute Diverticulitis (DINAMO-study): A Multicentre, Randomised, Open-label, Noninferiority Trial. Ann Surg. 2021;274(5):e435-e442. doi:10.1097/SLA.0000000000005031

*Image from Hellerhoff, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Summarized by John Spartz, MS4 | Edited by Erik Verzemnieks, MD

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