[The ambulatory medical treatment of colonic diverticulitis. An open clinico-endoscopic-histological study with rifaximin, a nonaminoglycoside enteric antibiotic].

Twenty patients with mild acute diverticulitis of the colon were treated with rifaximine 400 mg b.i.d. per os per 10 days. From a clinical point of view, spontaneous and evoked abdominal pain, diarrhoea, nausea, leukocytosis and hyperthermia resulted in marked significant reduction at the end of treatment, as compared to the basal data (P less than 0.01). A significant reduction of the peridiverticular oedema, mucosal redness, submucosal haemorrhage and diffuse granular pattern was observed endoscopically at the end of treatment (P less than 0.05). Only a trend toward degrees of vasodilation and submucosa hemorrhage was observed from the histological point of view. No side-effect was observed during and after the treatment period.