Giant fecal calculus of the proximal colon. Clinical observation

Abstract

Fecal stones are a collection of solid feces, most often in the distal colon. The formation of fecal stones occurs in people with damage to the autonomic nervous system (Chagas or Hirschsprung's disease), elderly patients suffering from prolonged constipation. Symptoms of coprolites are usually not specific (discomfort in the abdomen, constipation followed by severe diarrhea, weight loss). At clinical examination it is possible to suspect tumor formation. In diagnosis using a colonoscopy, X-ray methods (irrigoscopy, radiography of the abdomen, CT, MRI). The occurrence of fecal concretions can lead to complications such as intestinal obstruction, bedsores in the area of the fit of the stone, ulcers, bleeding, perforation, fecal peritonitis, the formation of a tumor process in the intestinal wall. Treatment is often conservative, in complicated cases surgery.Present a rare case of intestinal obstruction in an 85-year-old male with colostoma caused by obstruction by a giant fecal calculus in an atypical location (proximal colon), with an erased clinical picture and diagnostic difficulties.