Summary

Large bowel obstruction is an important surgical emergency. The cause of obstruction may be benign or malignant, and include large bowel volvulus, polyps, intraperitoneal adhesions, strictures and neoplastic growths. Large bowel obstruction caused by gallstone(s) is a very rare phenomenon and not many cases are reported in the English literature. The present report describes a case of large bowel obstruction and faecal peritonitis caused by a gallstone perforating sigmoid colon. A database search (PubMed) did not locate any cases of large bowel perforation by a gallstone in the English literature, and hence this case report may be the first on this subject.