[Surgical management of incidental Meckel's diverticulum: the necessity to obtain the informed consent].

Surgical approach to the incidentally found Meckel's diverticulum (MD) is still source of debate: some support the systematic search and the surgical resection, others suggest to leave in situ the asymptomatic diverticulum. A wide literature review and some claims for malpractice referred to resection of diverticular formations (2 cases are described herein) allow us to deem that the removal of an asymptomatic MD may be an excess of surgical indication regarding an entity that cannot be defined as pathological for itself; anyway, the informed consent must be obtained before the incidental resection. The consent to the removal of MD must always be requested for laparotomies in which the surgeon forecasts the possibility to remove a diverticulum eventually found. Finally, an easy informed consent form about an incidentally found MD to be submitted to the patient is proposed.