Eight months after doctors drained an abscess next to her gallbladder, a 91-year-old woman returned to the hospital with a red, tender swelling on the right side of her upper abdomen that was leaking yellow fluid. A CT scan showed why. A tract had formed from her gallbladder area straight through the abdominal wall to her skin, and six gallstones were sitting inside it.
The condition, called a cholecystocutaneous fistula, is an abnormal tunnel connecting the gallbladder to the skin. Because surgery was considered too risky for her, doctors took an unusual approach: they fitted the opening with a stoma bag and let it be. Over the next three months, the fistula matured and drained on and off, and at one point gallstones came out through it on their own.
