Enterolith small-bowel obstruction caused by jejunal diverticulosis: Report of a case.

Journal: Surgery Today
Published:
Abstract

We report the successful surgical treatment of intestinal obstruction caused by enteroliths formed in jejunal diverticula. A 78-year-old man with bowel obstruction of unknown etiology was initially managed conservatively, but suffered recurrence of the obstruction. Thus, we performed a laparotomy, which revealed multiple diverticula in the jejunum, with one enterolith inside a diverticulum and one enterolith in the terminal ileum. There was no abnormal communication between the gallbladder and the intestinal tract, excluding the possibility of a gallstone ileus. The stone in the terminal ileum could not be broken manually, so we performed an enterotomy to remove the stones. Intestinal obstruction caused by enteroliths in small-bowel diverticula is a rare event, which is difficult to diagnose and manage. To our knowledge, only 35 such cases have ever been reported.

Authors
Eleni Efremidou, Nikolaos Liratzopoulos, Michalis Papageorgiou, George Kouklakis, Georgios Minopoulos, Konstantinos Manolas