[Giant bladder calculus. Report of a clinical case]

The authors describe a case of giant vesical calculus in an 89 year old patient. The diagnosis, as in the other cases reported in the international literature, was made after a series of laboratory and instrumental exams, for groups reported by the patient in the lower abdomen. Operated for the removal of the vesical calculus, he was considered healed after a fortnight. The vesical calculus has a mixed composition and it weighs about 380 grams. The revision of the literature shows the various chemical composition of the vesical calculus that does not permit to identify a common aetiology. It is not possible to demonstrate if the formation of this kind of calculus is primary (in the urinary bladder) or if it is proper of the high urinary tract or mixed. The most recurrent causes being various and different confirm the mixed aetiopathologic theory. The diagnosis, often casual, is made thanks to the most common diagnostic exams; as it is difficult to make a complete cystoscopic control because the bladder is almost completely occupied by the lithiasic formation. The surgical therapy consists of a epicystotomy with a following removal of the calculus. In literature, moreover, cases treated with extra-body lithotripsy are not reported, on the contrary ot happens daily for the lithiasis of the high urinary tract.