Hypersensitivity vasculitis due to ofloxacin.

We estimate that up to 60% of the patients we treated after extending the selection criteria for treatment would otherwise have been treated by cholecystectomy. Treatment was most successful in patients with many small stones (s1 cm diameter). The median time to clearance of stones in this group was seven months. This was shorter than would be expected with oral dissolution treatment alone, suggesting that lithotripsy played an important part. 4 The relative importance of extracorporeal fragmentation and oral dissolution treatment in this treatment is unclear. Sackman et al showed that bile salt treatment had a major influence on their results: stones were completely cleared in only 30% of their patients two months after lithotripsy compared with 93% at 18 months.' We added a terpene compound to the bile salts, which may have enhanced dissolution and had an important antispasmodic effect, thus reducing biliary colic.5 Interestingly, only 16% of our patients had biliary colic compared with 35% reported by Sackman et al.'