Diverticulosis affects both sexes about equally, but diverticulitis is more common in females. Twenty-five per cent of patients with diverticulosis will develop diverticulitis; this percentage rises as the follow-up period lengthens. The probability of developing a complication increases with each attack of diverticulitis and when diabetes coexists. The morbidity and mortality (6.5 per cent) associated with these complications remain high. Consequently, elective operation during a quiescent stage of recurrent diverticulitis appears increasingly preferable to the urgent and often multistaged procedures necessary for complicated diverticulitis. Staged procedures—resecting the diseased segment during the first operation, if possible—remain the safest method for treating these complications.