A pear-shaped organ that sits just below your liver on the upper right side of your abdomen. Your gallbladder collects and stores bile — a digestive fluid produced in your liver. A small, hard crystalline mass formed abnormally in the gall bladder or bile ducts from bile pigments, cholesterol, and calcium salts. Gallstones can cause severe pain and blockage of the bile duct.
Gallstones may cause no signs or symptoms. If a gallstone lodges in a duct and causes a blockage, signs and symptoms may result, such as:
• Sudden and rapidly intensifying pain in the upper right portion of your abdomen
• Sudden and rapidly intensifying pain in the center of your abdomen, just below your breastbone
• Back pain between your shoulder blades
• Pain in your right shoulder
Gallstone pain may last several minutes to a few hours.
Tests and procedures used to diagnose gallstones include:
• Tests to create pictures of your gallbladder:
Abdominal ultrasound and a computerized tomography (CT) scan to create pictures of your gallbladder. These images can be analyzed to look for signs of gallstones.
• Tests to check your bile ducts for gallstones.
A test that uses a special dye to highlight your bile ducts on images may help to determine whether a gallstone is causing a blockage.
• Blood tests to look for complications: Blood tests may reveal an infection, jaundice, pancreatitis or other complications caused by gallstones.
Include:
If you're overweight or obese, your risk for gallbladder disease – typically an inflamed or infected gallbladder, with gallstones – is higher. Since gallstones are made of cholesterol, if you have high cholesterol, it can add to your risk of getting gallstones and feeling the discomfort that comes with them. Better consult a nutritionist to lose weight and diet advise.
- Medications to dissolve gallstones
- Laproscopic Cholecystectomy
• is most commonly performed by inserting a tiny video camera and special surgical tools through four small incisions to see inside your abdomen and remove the gallbladder.
• Open Cholecystectomy:
• In this case, one large incision may be used to remove the gallbladder.
Consult at Aadil hospital for counseling, better medication and treatment.
