Is 10 days long enough to take augmenting for diverticulitis?

Posted on Wed, 5 Mar 2014

Question: I have just had a cat scan diagnosis of diverticulitis and have been prescribed Augmenting 875/125mg twice daily for 10 days. Is 10 days long enough? I know some recommend a 14 day treatment. How do I know when I'm cured of this episode---when the abdominal pain & tenderness subsides?

Answered by Dr. Grzegorz Stanko (2 hours later)

Brief Answer: Detailed below. Detailed Answer: Hello! Thank you for the query. Current guidelines say that uncomplicated diverticulitis should be treated with trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole or ciprofloxacin and metronidazole. Rifaximine treatment is also acceptable and gives less frequent recurrences. Regular course of mentioned above is 7-10 days. Augmentin is not a good choice and you may find it ineffective. Please note that some cases of diverticulitis can lead to intestine perforation. That is why it is extremely important to have it treated correctly. Symptoms usually go away after 2-3 days of proper antibiotics treatment. After full course of antibiotics inflammation should be healed. Please remember to have colonoscopy done (not earlier than 3 weeks after the treatment) But once again, Augmentin can be ineffective. I suggest you to consult other doctor (gastrologist for example) and consider different antibiotic treatment Hope this will help. Feel free to ask further questions. Regards.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar