A febrile occlusion revealing a biliary ileus

Biliary ileus is a consequence of the migration of a gallstone from the gallbladder to the digestive tract, most often via a biliodigestive fistula that causes a bowel obstruction. The clinic is atypical and capricious, including bowel obstruction and signs of cholecystitis, causing a delay in diagnosis. The therapeutic objective is to remove the intestinal obstacle by an enterotomy with stone extraction, with or without treatment of the biliary pathology (cholecystectomy and biliary fistula cure). The surgery remains the treatment of choice; laparoscopy and endoscopy present a less invasive alternative and are beginning to prove their effectiveness. The morbi-mortality remains high for biliary ileus, this is principally caused by the delay in diagnosis.