Hospital Admission, Medical, and Surgical Procedures for Acute Diverticulitis Are More Appropriate when Using a Diagnostic and Therapeutic Assistance Pathway: An Experience from a Referral Center.

Introduction: Our aim was to assess the impact of the Diagnostic and Therapeutic Assistance Pathway (PDTA) developed for acute diverticulitis (AD) on the management of patients with AD and referring to the emergency room (ER) in a referral center.

Methods: This retrospective study includes all patients diagnosed with AD and referring to the ER between January 1, 2021, and December 31, 2022 (after approval of PDTA), compared to the same period of 2015-2019. Length of stay in ER, medical and surgical management, and length in hospital stay (in days) were also measured according to the type of disease (uncomplicated vs. complicated).

Results: ER admission due to AD during the period 2015-2019 was 240 ± 13 cases per year, while it was 290 cases in 2022 (p = 0.05). After adopting the PDTA, the rate of length of stay in ER >24 h for AD was significantly reduced (p = 0.01); the median rate of hospital admission for AD was significantly reduced (p < 0.05); the rate of medical treatment of uncomplicated disease was increased (p = 0.01), while the rate of surgical management was decreased (p = 0.05); the rate of medical treatment of complicated disease was increased (p = 0.01), while the rate of surgical management was decreased (p = 0.001); the hospital stay was significantly reduced in both uncomplicated (p = 0.05) and complicated (p = 0.05) AD.

Conclusions: The development and the routine use of a PDTA dedicated to AD have significantly improved the management of these patients, reducing the ER stay, the surgical procedures, and the overall hospital stay.