What ails Fidel Castro? The diagnosis so far, according to word passed along by one of Castro's consulting physicians, is that Cuba's Premier has a complex of ills of the lower alimentary canal, including hemorrhoids, diverticulitis of the colon and an abscess with fistula.
Diverticulitis results when waste matter becomes fixed in small, hernia-like outward bulges of the intestinal wall that sometimes develop where blood vessels enter. Bacteria multiply in the waste, and the intestinal wall becomes inflamed and infected. Untreated, the infection may rupture and form an abscess outside the wall of the colon. A fistula is an abnormal passage...