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Medical Treatment of Gallstone Disease

  • Chapter
Biliary Lithiasis

Abstract

Gallstones are one of the most prevalent and costly digestive diseases [1]. About 75% of the gallstones in the United States and other westernized countries are cholesterol gallstones, which are subclassified as either pure cholesterol or mixed stones that contain at least half cholesterol by weight. The remaining gallstones are pigment stones that contain mostly calcium bilirubinate and are subclassied into two groups: black pigment stones (20%) and brown pigment stones (5%).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine and Public Medicine Clinica Medica A. Murri, University of Bari Medical School, Bari, Italy

    Piero Portincasa, Antonio Moschetta & Luigi Borracino

  2. Department of Translational Pharmacology, Consorzio Mario Negri Sud, Santa Maria Imbaro (Chieti), Italy

    Antonio Moschetta

  3. Section of Surgery Department of Emergency and Transplant Organs (DETO), University of Bari Medical School, Bari, Italy

    Francesco Puglisi

  4. Gastroenterology Division Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    David Q. -H. Wang

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  1. Piero Portincasa
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Portincasa, P., Moschetta, A., Puglisi, F., Borracino, L., Wang, D.Q.H. (2008). Medical Treatment of Gallstone Disease. In: Biliary Lithiasis. Springer, Milano. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-88-470-0763-5_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-88-470-0763-5_13

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