Enterolith Causing Small Bowel Obstruction: Report of a Case and Review of Literature

Abstract

Oshin Sharma,1 Dhiraj Mallik,1 Sukrati Ranjan,2 Poonam Sherwani,2 Navin Kumar,1 Somprakas Basu1 1Department of General Surgery, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, India; 2Department of Radiodiagnosis, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, IndiaCorrespondence: Somprakas Basu, Department of General Surgery, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, India, Tel [phone], Email [email protected]: Enterolithiasis, also known as gastro-intestinal concretions, is an uncommon medical disorder that arises from intestinal stasis. Enteroliths are commonly caused by tuberculosis-related constriction and arise from intestinal diverticula. Small bowel obstruction caused by an enterolith is extremely uncommon and might be difficult to diagnose. The mortality rate of uncomplicated enterolithiasis is relatively low, but it rises to 3% in patients who have background comorbid illness, have significant bowel obstruction, and are diagnosed late. We present a rare case of an uncomplicated partial intestinal obstruction caused by an enterolith in an elderly male patient with small bowel diverticular disease who was treated nonoperatively and did not develop further symptoms in the six-month follow-up and discuss the difficulty in diagnosis and its management.Keywords: intestinal obstruction, intestinal ileus, calculi, diverticular disease, small intestine

Keywords

• intestinal obstruction
• intestinal ileus
• calculi
• diverticular disease
• small intestine