[Clinical, infrared spectroscopic and chemical analysis of bile duct and gallbladder stones]

By means of concrements, which were obtained endoscopically by extraction from the bile duct, and of gallstones, which were given the patient by the surgeon on the occasion of the gallbladder operation, we performed stone analyses with the aid of infrared spectroscopy and compared them correlatively with clinical and case history data. The paper focussed on the detection of the stony structure of choledochal concrements, separated into stone core and stone mantle. A method for the reliable differentiation of stones left (residual stones) from new formations (recurrent stones) in the bile ducts has not been possible to date. Thus, the burning question of the surgeon cannot be answered with certainty. However, there is no doubt about surgical suture material as incrustation core for a pigment stone in terms of a true recurrent stone, which poses a real challenge to biliary tract surgery.