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The most dreaded complication of diverticular disease is free perforation. However, despite the burdens of morbidity and economic cost that diverticular perforation places on the healthcare system, we know little about its occurrence in the general population.
To bridge this knowledge gap, investigators performed a population-based cohort study of incidence and mortality involving patients with free perforated diverticular disease and 9520 healthy age- and sex-matched controls identified from 1990 to 2005 in a U.K. general practice research database. Incident cases were defined as having no prior record of perforated colonic diverticular disease within 90 days of original registration at a general practice. Patients were excluded if they had…