A rolling stone: Vomiting of a gallstone without the presence of a biliary-enteric fistula

Abstract

Gallstones may pass into the gastrointestinal tract spontaneously through the ampulla of Vater or through a biliary-enteric fistula. This report describes an extremely rare case of a patient vomiting a gallstone without the presence of a fistula between the gallbladder and the gastrointestinal tract. Furthermore, no imaging findings of gallstones disease appeared. The patient has been treated conservatively and all symptoms subsided. The patient remains asymptomatic 3 months after treatment and an elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy was arranged. Including this reported case, only three cases have been described in the literature worldwide. However, our case is the only one characterized by retrograde flow of the gallstones into the stomach without symptoms of bowel obstruction or other underlying pathologies.