CHARACTERISTICS OF BILIARY CALCULOUS DISEASES IN CHINA: THE CHANGING SCOPE Diseases of the biliary tract in China is complicated with the prevalence of primary infection of the bile duct system. In the middle of the 20th century, biliary infection, biliary parasitic infestation, and biliary stones made up the three chief components of biliary diseases in China. As to the calculous diseases of the biliary tract, the relative incidence of primary bile duct stones accounted for 50% of the total cases. Therefore, calculous disease accounted for 60.1% among 228 surgical cases in the Chongqing Southwest Hospital, and 60 of the 80 common bile duct stones were primary bile duct origin ( including primary intrahepatic duct stones)[1,2].