Abstract
Comparatively little has been written on the subject of diverticulosis and diverticulitis of the colon in young persons. Indeed, it has been generally accepted that these conditions hardly ever occur in patients under 30 years of age. It has even been stated that so far as the distal colon is concerned, diverticula are never found in children.1 Inasmuch as I have had 7 patients under 30—6 in their twenties and 1 aged 12—with diverticulosis or diverticulitis of the colon, and since 4 of these were seen within a three year period and 2 were operated on within nine months, I believe that these conditions may be far more common in the young than physicians have been led to assume. The data on which the prevailing concept of the incidence of diverticulosis of the colon is based consist of postmortem reports and radiographic investigations of patients who presented abdominal symptoms.

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