Article Text

Download PDFPDF
CASE REPORT
Gallstone ileus of the duodenum: an unexpected presentation of Bouveret's syndrome
  1. Neil Tindell1,
  2. Kayla Holmes2,
  3. David Marotta2
  1. 1Medical Education, Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine, Dothan, Alabama, USA
  2. 2Department of Surgery, Coosa Valley Medical Center, Sylacauga, Alabama, USA
  1. Correspondence to Mr Neil Tindell, tindellna{at}acom.edu

Summary

This report describes a patient who presented with a large gallstone obstructing the duodenal bulb, with the chief complaint of acute on chronic abdominal pain. Classically, this is known as Bouveret's syndrome or a gallstone ileus of the duodenum. Our patient's current health status presented a challenge, with the presence of several comorbidities, particularly a large abdominal aortic aneurism. We chose an open procedure for this reason. The stone was removed through a laparotomy, and the cholecystoduodenal fistula that the stone used to pass into the small bowel was repaired. With our patient's future medical needs in mind, only the necessary interventions were performed to regain functionality of the bowel. This came in the form of a diverting gastrojejunostomy, with a distal jejunostomy and feeding tube inserted. The patient tolerated the procedure well, only remaining intubated postoperative due to her chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). She achieved a complete recovery and transitioned home.

  • gastrointestinal surgery
  • general surgery

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Request Permissions

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

Footnotes

  • Contributors DM was the attending physician in charge of the medical and surgical management of the patient's care, in addition to initiating the request to write-up this case. NT was on DM's service as a medical student, assisted in the medical and surgical management of the patient, and conducted the initial literature review and drafting of this case report. KH assisted in the surgical management of the surgery. Each of the authors were extensively involved in the data gathering, editing and the final approval of this case report.

  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Patient consent Obtained.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.