Gall Bladder Stones and Benefits Of Its Surgery

The gallbladder is a small organ found beneath the right side of the liver and it works by collecting and concentrating BILE, a digestive fluid produced by the liver. The bile helps in digesting fats in the small intestine.

Gallbladder problems are usually caused due to the presence of gallstones in the gall bladder. These are small and hard stones made up of cholesterol and bile salts. You are more prone to get gallstones if you are-

• Female
• Over 40
• Are pregnant
• Have a family history of gallstones

The gallbladder is not an essential organ, and its removal is one of the most common surgical procedures performed on patients today. This is a low risk surgery and can even be performed on pregnant women.
In short, the primary advantages of surgically removing the gallbladder over nonsurgical treatment are that it can rule out gallstones and prevent gallbladder cancer in the future. And the removal of this organ is not associated with any impairment of digestion in people.

Benefits of Gallstone surgery
There are no known means through which you can prevent gallstones. And once you get gallstones, you will suffer from:

1. Sharp abdominal pain
2. Vomiting
3. Indigestion
4. Fever

These symptoms present themselves as the gallstones block the flow of bile out of the gallbladder, causing it to swell. You may also become more prone to jaundice.

Disadvantages of non-surgical treatments-
Non-surgical treatments are available for gallstones, but these are temporary. They include dietary adjustments and reduction of fat intake.

These treatments have a low success rate and symptoms usually continue unless the gallbladder is removed. Hence, surgical removal of the gallbladder is the time-honoured and safest treatment of gallbladder disease.

Types of Gallstone surgery

• Open procedures- Until the early 1990s, gallstone removal was done through open cholecystectomy, in which the gallbladder was removed through a wide incision in the abdomen.
• Nowadays, laparoscopic cholecystectomy is the standard procedure. In this, small incisions are made to remove the gall bladder.
• This type of surgery is done in patients who have inflammation in the gallbladder, but they have no gallstones. It is also being done in those who have gallstones, but no symptoms.Laparoscopy has replaced open cholecystectomy as it offers some significant advantages: shhort down time- You can leave the hospital and resume normal life much earlier, compared to open surgery.
  • Smaller incisions and less postoperative pain and disability.
  • Fewer complications.
  • Less expensive in the long term.

However, a few experts believe that the open procedure has a number of advantages over laparoscopy, like:

• Faster to perform.
• Less of a risk for bile duct injury compared with laparoscopy.

But all said and done, open surgery has more overall complications than laparoscopy. Another point to note, is that bile-duct injury rates with laparoscopy are declining steeply.

In case you have a concern or query you can always consult an expert & get answers to your questions!