The gallbladder is a small pear-shaped organ located on the right and below the liver. The gallbladder is not solid from inside. Its main function is to store bile and concentrate bile. Bile is yellow and brown digestive enzymes that the liver makes. This bile from the liver is stored inside the gallbladder. Waste products made in the liver from the gallbladder are sent to the duodenum of the small intestine.
Most cases of gallstones are easily treated with surgery and very severe cases can be life-threatening, especially in those whose health is poor due to some other disease.
Importance of Gallbladder
The gallbladder can be considered a storage organ that stores the liver-bile. It is located under the liver and in the right abdomen. The liver creates bile, which passes through the bile duct bile ducts into the gallbladder.
The gallbladder stores the bile and concentrates it, for which it mixes mineral salt and enzymes in it. When the fat has to be digested, which starts in the intestines, it secretes.
It is important to understand here that the liver is responsible for digestion. The liver itself is making bile. This bile is stored only in gallbladder. The gallbladder does not make the bile.
What is a gallstone?
Gallstones are called gallstones in English. Gallstones are hard particles that develop in the gallbladder.
Gallstones can range in size from a sand grain to a golf ball. The gallbladder may consist of one large or hundreds of small stones or both small and large stones.
Gallstones are usually made of cholesterol, which is in the gallbladder. In many cases, it has no symptoms and does not require treatment. But there are many cases in which it causes great pain.
Gallstones can cause sudden abdominal pain in the upper right side. This pain, called gallbladder attack biliary colic, occurs when the stone blocks the path of the bile. This pain may persist for 5-6 hours.
Gallstones can cause inflammation of the gallbladder (cholecystitis), and the following symptoms are also seen:
- Persistent pain
- Jaundice
- Fever fever
- When gallstones cause symptoms or complications, it is called cholelithiasis.
Causes of gallstones
Gallstones, in most cases, result from high cholesterol levels in the gallbladder. Cholesterol accumulates like stones. Gallstones can develop due to an imbalance in the chemical make-up of bile inside the gallbladder.
Gallstones are very common, it is estimated that about 1 in every 10 adults may have gallstones, but only a few people develop symptoms.
Symptoms of gallstones
Most cases of gallstones do not have any symptoms but if the stone blocks the bile ducts, it can cause sudden, severe abdominal pain.
Stomach pain
Sudden, severe abdominal pain that usually lasts for one to five hours but can sometimes last for a few minutes.
This pain is persistent and often triggered occasionally after eating fatty foods, but can occur at any time of the day and the pain is intense and you sleep when at night.
- This pain is felt in the middle of the right side of the stomach.
- This pain can spread just below the right ribs – or on the side or shoulder blades of your body.
- This pain does not occur often. Once it happens it can happen several weeks or months after the return.
- During pain, excessive sweating may occur.
- It can also cause vomiting.
Other symptoms may include:
- Mild fever 100.4 F temperature of 38C (100.4F) or above
- More persistent pain
- Rapid heartbeat
- White yellow of the skin and eyes (jaundice) y
- Itchy skin
- Diarrhea
- Chills or shivering attacks
- Confusion
- Loss of appetite
Diagnosis of gallstones
Gallstones are often detected during tests for another disease.
But if you have symptoms then an ultrasound scan can be done for this.
Ultrasound scan
Gallstones can usually be definitively detected by an ultrasound scan.
This is similar to an ultrasound scan done during pregnancy, in which a small device called a transducer is used. There is no pain in this test. Sound waves are sent through the transducer, through the skin, and into your body. They return to colliding body tissues and, on the monitor, produce an image. It takes about 10-15 minutes to complete.
MRI scan
A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan can be performed to look for gall stones in the bile ducts. This type of scan uses strong magnetic fields and radio waves to produce detailed images inside the body.
CT scan
A computerized tomography (CT) scan can be performed to look for any complications, such as gallstones, such as inflammation in the pancreas.
CT scans are often performed in an emergency to diagnose severe abdominal pain.
Treatment of gallstones
Treatment is usually necessary only if the symptoms are due to appendicitis, such as:
- Severe, prolonged abdominal pain (biliary colic)
- Complications such as jaundice or acute pancreatitis jaundice or acute pancreatitis
- Surgery may be performed in these cases for gallbladder removal cholecystectomy.
Open Kolesistektomi Open cholecystectomy then goes when swelling Galblader it infected. In this, the surgeon makes a 4 to the 6-inch long incision in the abdomen to remove the gallbladder.
This procedure, known as laparoscopic cholecystectomy, is relatively simple and has a low risk of complications.
Medicines for Gallstone
If the person cannot undergo surgery, he or she may be given medicines like Ursodiol, chenodiol which dissolves cholesterol stones. Nonsurgical treatment is used only under special circumstances, and this can occur again within 5 years of this treatment.
Ursodiol (also known as Ursodeoxycholic acid) Capsules, tablets, is bile acid used for preventing or dissolving gallstones. It may dissolve smaller stones of cholesterol. It reduces the amount of cholesterol released by the liver and by slowly dispersing the cholesterol in bile. This breaks up the stones or stops them from developing.
Chenodiol (also known as Chenodeoxycholic acid) is a naturally occurring human bile acid. Its chemical name is 3α, 7α-dihydroxy-5beta-cholan-24-oic acid (C24H40O4). The sites of action of chenodiol are the liver, bile, and the colon. It reduces hepatic synthesis both cholesterol and cholic acid, and gradually replace the latter and its metabolite, deoxycholic acid.
Chenodal is not an appropriate treatment for many patients with gallstones.
You can live a fairly normal life without a gallbladder. The liver will still produce bile to digest food, but it will go directly into the small intestine rather than going into the gallbladder.
After removing the gallbladder, some people may have persistent diarrhea because the bile goes directly into the intestines. These changes are usually temporary.
Side effects of gallbladder removal usually last only a few weeks. You would have been advised to eat a low-fat diet for the first several weeks after surgery but do not need to continue later. Instead, you should eat a generally balanced diet that contains a small amount of fat. The gall bladder is not an essential organ. Even without this, you can lead a completely normal life. So do not panic, do surgery if you need to.
Gallstones are hard particles inside gallbladder that may be caused due to excess cholesterol, bilirubin, or not enough bile salts. Women, people over age 40, people with a family history of gallstones, have greater chances of developing these kinds of stones. Gallbladder attacks often occur after heavy meals, in the evening or during the night.
Gallstones without any symptoms do not require any treatment. Such gallstones are called asymptomatic, or silent, gallstones. But, when gallstones are present with symptoms they should be treated as soon as possible to avoid complications of developing jaundice, inflammation in pancreas or damage to bile ducts.
The treatment involves surgery to remove the gallbladder. If a person cannot undergo surgery, nonsurgical treatments may be used to dissolve cholesterol gallstones.
The gallbladder is not an essential organ, and you can live normally without a gallbladder. When the gallbladder is removed, bile flows out of the liver through the hepatic and common bile ducts and directly into the duodenum, instead of being stored in the gallbladder. Therefore, do not worry and go for the surgery when suggested by your doctor.