An increasing interest in functional disturbances which may be the underlying cause of pathologic changes in the common bile duct is manifest in the recent literature. Improvement of the technic of cholangiography for the study of dysfunction and pathologic conditions of the common duct has been the means of increasing knowledge of functional disturbances that seem to terminate in organic disease. This knowledge, as well as that derived from careful follow-up studies of cholecystectomized patients, has led to more frequent exploration of the common duct in recent years and, therefore, to an apparent increase in the incidence of stone in the common duct (Clute,1 Lahey,2 Cheever,3 Cattell4 and others).
Kehr,5 Deaver,6 Moynihan,7 Lahey,8 Hermanson and Goldowsky9 and Maingot10 are among the many authors who have emphasized the frequent neglect or oversight of lesions of the common bile duct, especially calculi.