Giant Stone Research Articles

Fragmentation of giant common bile duct stones by extracorporal shockwave lithotripsy (device of the second generation)

Fragmentation of giant common bile duct stones by extracorporal shockwave lithotripsy (device of the second generation)

Large calculi of the submandibular salivary glands

Salivary calculi occur in the submandibular and parotid glands, and their ducts, and occasionally reach a large size. However, little information is available on the composition of these giant stones. 2 cases are reported of unusually large calculi of the submandibular salivary glands. The glands were excised, and the results of chemical and infrared analysis of the calculi are presented.

Stone Formation Following Repair of Epispadias with Subcutaneous Pedical Flap From Scrotum: A Case Report

SummaryA case of Epispadias type III was operated in July, 1963 when chordee was released and the urethral mucosal defect produced in the post-urethra was covered by a 1.3×1.3 cm subcutaneous scrotal flap brought dorsally through a gap created between the crurae. Urethral reconstruction was done from the local tissues. After eight years patient reported with a giant stone in the urethra at the site of the scrotal flap.

Giant vesical calculas and anuria.

A 50-year-old fisherman developed uremia and anuria, due to a giant vesical calculus. He was treated with suprapubic lithotomy, and a calculus weighing 1 640 g was removed. This may be the largest calculus ever removed with recovery of the patient. No other reports of giant stones leading to anuria has been found in the available literature. More than 4 years later an inoperable carcinoma of the bladder was discovered. The long delay in diagnosis of the giant stone, as later of the carcinoma, was due to the patient's lack of confidence in doctors and hospitals.

Easter Island's stone giants: a neuro-psychiatric view.

The sorting-out of neuro-psychiatrically meaningful patterns is offered as an auxiliary tool to so far unsuccessful attempts at understanding why the approximately 1000 giant stone statues on Easter Island exist and at deciphering the significance of their unique features. Under stone age conditions these stone giants of repetitive shape were created by a population of 3000 to 4000 at the most, probably between 1100 A.D. and 1680 A.D. on an isolated and quite barren island. It is suggested that nothing short of an existential shock would have provided the impetus for this strenuous form of art. The disfiguring disease of leprosy, which has been endemic on Easter Island, might have constituted such a shock. Thus, in a possible magic attempt at mastery, the still healthy portion of the tiny community may have created these stone giants, who represent indestructable strength in general, and fortification of those specific body parts, which are usually damaged or disfigured by leprosy, in particular. Thus 7 body areas, including the acral ones, of these stone giants show a specific pattern of deviation from the normal appearance of the human body. These deviations may represent the reversal of the characteristic signs of leprosy into their opposite, a mechanism used by our unconscious to prevent panic.