How Often Does Presumed Diverticular Bleeding Recur?

Patients with acute diverticular hemorrhage are at risk for recurrent episodes, but estimates vary on the incidence of such recurrences. A complicating issue is that diagnosis of diverticular hemorrhage often is “presumptive” — the default diagnosis when a bleeding diverticulum is not visualized definitively but no other plausible source of lower gastrointestinal bleeding is found.

In this retrospective study, researchers identified 139 patients who were hospitalized at 2 U.S. centers with severe hematochezia between 1994 and 2024 and discharged with diagnoses of presumptive diverticular hemorrhage. During average follow-up of 6 years, 25% of patients experienced rebleeding. About half of the recurrent episodes were considered to be presumpt…