Medicine: The Shah's Galling Gallstone

Doctors hope to remove it without using surgery

From the day the Shah of Iran arrived in the U.S. for medical treatment, news of his condition has centered on his six-year fight with cancer. But another painful disorder was the more immediate cause of his sudden flight to New York City: gallstones.

Within two days of being admitted to New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, the deposed monarch was in the operating room, where surgeons removed his stone-filled gall bladder. At the same time, they explored the bile ducts connecting the liver and gall bladder to...

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