Clinically Diagnosed Acute Diverticulitis in Outpatients: Misdiagnosis in Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

BACKGROUND

Physicians often diagnose diverticulitis and prescribe antibiotics in outpatients with abdominal pain and tenderness without other evidence.

AIM: We investigated the misattribution of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) symptoms to diverticulitis in outpatients.

METHODS

In patients diagnosed with diverticulitis and dispensed antibiotics in an integrated healthcare system, we retrospectively compared 15,846 outpatients managed without computed tomography (CT) versus 3750 emergency department/inpatients who had CT. We assessed demographics and past history, including 17 symptom-based somatic and 11 mental disorders and three somatic-mental comorbidity pairs (dyads) coded over 3 years and seven drug classes dispensed over 1 year before diagnosis.

RESULTS

Univariate analysis showed small intergroup demographic differences. Outpatients had increases in prior diverticulitis, including outpatient-managed episodes, total somatic diagnoses (p < .0001), eight somatic and three mental disorders (p ≤ .015), all three dyads (p ≤ .05), and dispensing of three drug classes (p ≤ .016). IBS had been diagnosed in 2399 (15.1 %) outpatients versus 361 (9.6 %) emergency department/inpatients (p < .0001), the greatest increase in any comorbidity. Emergency department/inpatients had no somatic comorbidity more often but more alcohol dependence, non-dependent drug abuse, and opioid dispensing (p ≤ .05). Regression analysis revealed outpatient care was independently positively associated with younger age, non-Hispanic white race/ethnicity, less Charlson comorbidity, diverticulitis history, IBS, chest pain, dyspepsia, fibromyalgia, low back pain, migraine, acute reaction to stress, and antispasmodic and anxiolytic dispensing and negatively associated with non-dependent drug abuse and opioid dispensing (p ≤ .0226).

CONCLUSIONS

Multiple types of indirect and concordant evidence suggest misattribution of IBS pain to diverticulitis and unnecessary antibiotic therapy in outpatients.