[Effect of chenodeoxycholic acid in cholesterol lithiasis].

Chenodesoxycholic acid (CDCA) was administered to 60 patients with radiolucent lithiasis and also to 2 patients with functioning gallbladder and radiopaque stone. The lithiasis disappeared completely in 27 patients while in 14 patients there was a decrease in the size of the stones from 30 to 70% as compared to the size of the previous ones. Treatment was successful in about 68,33% of cases. Only one patient had severe diarrhea which led to interruption of treatment. A transient increase of SGOT and SGPT was observed in 7 patients (11,29%) and there was an increase of GT in 4 patients (6,45%). These enzymes returned to normal with no change of treatment. 48 patients had hepatic biopsy before and during treatment, but no histologic abnormalities were found. Two patients were operated upon at 9 and 17 months after starting treatment due to bile-pancreatic crisis. Of the 27 patients who had complete remission of lithiasis, 12 of them were given 500 mg/day CDCA and another twelve 500 mg every other day. None of the two groups revealed recurrence of lithiasis. Two of the patients who were given only 500 mg twice a week revealed multiple small-sized lithiasis 7 and 9 months after dissolution. A patient who had interrupted treatment completely revealed a recurrence of lithiasis after 10 months.