<p>This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.</p> <p>Gallstone dissolution may be possible only in selected patients. Patients with calcified or large gallstones
are not suitable for dissolution. Citrate is normally present in bile and an oral citrate load can increase
biliary citrate.</p> <p>A combination of chenodeoxycholic acid (C.D.C.A.) and citrate has been shown to dissolve calcified
cholesterol gallstones <italic>in vitro</italic>. Patients with calcified or large gallstones were treated with a combination of C.D.C.A. and citrate. Partial decalcification was achieved in seven out of twenty patients with
calcified stones (35%) and complete decalcification in four patients (20%). One of the patients with
large stones had complete dissolution.</p> <p>Five patients who were suitable for C.D.C.A. treatment but did not respond were also treated with
C.D.C.A. and citrate. One of the patients in this latter group had complete dissolution. Oral citrate can
decalcify some calcified gallstones.</p>
[]
HPB Surg. 1990; 3(1):59-65