Laminated radiopaque enteroliths: diagnostic clues to intestinal pathology

Laminated intestinal calculi were detected during radiographic evaluation of the abdomen in 14 adult patients. These enteroliths had developed in the distal ileum of 12 patients who had either a Meckel's diverticulum (four cases) or a variety of other lesions causing local stasis, including strictures due to Crohn's ileitis, ileocecal tuberculosis, radiation enteritis, and peritoneal adhesions. Only two patients had enteroliths in the colon proximal to strictures complicating ulcerative colitis. The clinical and radiological features of enterolithiasis as well as the mechanism of its formation are herein described.