Colouterine fistula secondary to diverticulitis.

Colouterine fistula complicating diverticulitis is rare. Our experience with two patients, one with chronic vaginal discharge and the other with acute overwhelming sepsis, emphasizes the wide spectrum of clinical presentations that may accompany this entity. In patients with chronic symptoms, surgery is indicated to forestall further local infectious complications, and a single-stage sigmoid resection without hysterectomy may be adequate. If malignancy cannot be excluded, a single-stage en bloc resection of the uterus and colon is the procedure of choice. Hysterectomy may also be mandatory to extirpate a nidus of acute infection. When severe local inflammation or obstruction mandate urgent operation, a two-stage procedure involving resection and end colostomy, followed by reanastomosis at a later time, is safest and most effective.