[Physico-chemical properties of ursodeoxycholic acid and its usefulness in hepatopathies]. / Propiedades fisicoquímicas del ácido ursodesoxicólico y su utilidad en las hepatopatías.

The authors of this article reviewed the physico-chemical properties of bile acids, with particular attention to ursodeoxycholic acid. Based on this information they explain the rational for treating some chronic liver diseases, like primary biliary cirrhosis and primary sclerosing cholangitis with bile acids. Finally they discussed the results of the different clinical trials of ursodeoxycholic acid in chronic liver diseases.

[Fragmentation of single biliary calculi with an electromagnetic generator]. / Fragmentación de cálculos biliares únicos con un generador electromagnético.

Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy is a non surgical alternative for the treatment of cholelitiasis. At present, there are three main types of shock waves generators, one of them an electromagnetic device is (lithostar plus). The aim of this work is inform results obtained using Lithostar plus machine for the treatment of patients with a single gallstone. From total of 722 patients, 98 filled criteria for lithotripsy treatment; 63 patients had a single gallstone, with a mean age of 48.83 +/- 13.89 22 were males and 41 females. Patients were divided in 5 groups in base of the number of extracorporeal shock waves used, all of them had similar a gallstones of similar size. 32 patients (50.8%) showed total fragmentation with only one session. According with the results obtained, we can conclude that using lithostar plus we can get total fragmentation in one session in 50.8% of patients with a single gallstone.