Small bowel obstruction due to enterolith (bezoar) formed in a duodenal diverticulum: a case report and review of the literature

Abstract

An elderly patient with an acute small bowel obstruction due to an enterolith that evolved within a duodenal diverticulum is reported. Twenty-four prior instances of small bowel obstruction due to an enterolith formed within a small bowel diverticulum have been culled from the world literature and tabulated. In toto, 18 subjects are female and seven are male. The median age is 68 yr. Optimal surgical management is either to break up the enterolith and milk the components into the cecum without an enterotomy or, as is more often necessary, to milk the enterolith orad removing the concretion through an enterotomy made in less edematous small intestine. As in managing gallstone ileus, the bowel should be "run" seeking additional enteroliths. The diagnosis can be established only by documenting the normalcy of the gallbladder and the presence of duodenal and/or jejunal diverticula.