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

Abstract

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

Ethics Statement

Written consent for publication was obtained from the patient. This manuscript received Institutional Ethics Committee approval for publication.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.