[Gallstone ileus--the diagnostic and surgical problems].

After a brief review of the literature the authors discuss in an analytical and critical aspect the clinical manifestations, diagnosis and operative problems in biliary-calculus ileus. Three personal clinical observations are reported in women at mean age 68 years and a history of biliary calculosis dating many years back, associated with other accompanying diseases. Proceeding from available data in the literature and from their personal experience the authors consider the unsolved problems for operative management, both of the complications and of the underlying disease--the gall bladder calculosis and the biliodigestive fistula. The first to be radically solved by operation is the complication, while the operative treatment of the underlying disease depends upon the following factors: severity of the ileus, patient age, local finding, hepatobiliary zone, accompanying diseases etc.