https://www.youtube.com/embed/7-OoKjFFmhE – My name is Dr. Ken Blake. I’m a colorectal surgeon at Sky Ridge Medical Center. Well, colorectal surgery offers a series of challenges in treating both benign and malignant diseases that can be life-threatening. There are several challenges. We endeavor to minimize the number of colostomies we make. The functional considerations of colorectal surgery in terms of people having normal dietary, normal bowel function, normal control of their feces is important and very challenging and much more prevalent than people usually believe. Well, diverticulitis generally presents as abdominal pain, most frequently in the left lower quadrant. The pain will often be crampy. There may be associated fevers and chills. There may be a sense of urinary urgency, frequency. The bowel cramps may alleviate with bowel movements. These symptoms can come on very suddenly. About 1% of the episodes of diverticulitis are what I would describe as catastrophic, where…