title: [Historical aspects of the conservative treatment of gallstone disease].
abstract: On the basis of several selected instances a short review of the role internal therapy in the history of cholelithiasis is given. The multifarious medicamentous, physical and dietetic measures remained for centuries the only, though not always satisfying therapeutic alternative to operation. Thereby is also referred to the misuse which was done by irresponsible physicians and laymen even in the field of the treatment of gall-stones. Only the flowering of the operative medicine compelled the internal medicine towards the end of the 19th century to give the supremacy over to surgery, because only this part of medicine was able to remove the causes of the disease. With the development of new chemolitholytic substances and the crushing of the stone on endoscopic and extracorporal way new perspectives again begin to limn themselves in the conservative treatment of cholelithiasis.
mesh_terms: D002769:Cholelithiasis / Q000266:history* / Q000628:therapy; D049669:History, 16th Century; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049691:History, Medieval; D006801:Humans
vernacular_title: Einige historische Aspekte zur konservativen Behandlung des Gallensteinleidens.