[Diagnosis and treatment of intestinal obstruction caused by biliary calculi]

During a 20-year period among 513 patients, subjected to surgery for acute intestinal obstruction, the intestinal obstruction with bile stones was noted in 10 cases. The clinical picture of cholelithic intestinal obstruction is characterized by an intermittent course, that would result in late hospitalization and a delayed surgical therapy. Among 10 patients under treatment there were 5 lethal issues. Despite a comparatively not infrequent spontaneous cure in this lesion, it is felt that active surgical measures should be employed. An initiated operative intervention should be as minimum as possible, i. e. be limited by a liquidation of the obstruction by means of removing a cholelith from the intestinal lumen.