[Gallstone ileus]

The authors discuss 25 patients with gallstone ileus, which is a quite frequently encountered complication of cholelithiasis and is recorded in 0.64% of patient who underwent operation for calculous cholecystitis. The diagnosis and treatment of this complication have some specific features whose knowledge is extremely important in rendering emergency surgical care. Better results can be achieved by a timely and adequate diagnosis, individual choice of the operative method, and subsequent follow-up of the patients who were operated on. Regular medical examination and planned preventive treatment of patients with cholelithiasis are the main trends in the prophylaxis of this disease. Postoperative mortality was 24%.