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Find an effective approach, towards treating the Gall Bladder Calculus

The other name for Gall Bladder Calculus is Cholelithiasis. Now let us get on to the basics of what is what.

What is a gall bladder?

A Gall bladder is a pear shaped organ that is found, beneath your liver. Bile, is a dark green fluid, secreted by the liver and is stored in the gall bladder. And this bile helps breaking down your food components into vital nutrients that get absorbed through the intestines.

How does Gall bladder calculus form?

Once you are done, eating your food, bile is immediately released from your gall bladder, all the way through your cystic duct, travels down to the common bile duct, just to enter your duodenum.. Sometimes what happens is, there is an excessive accumulation of bile juice which is rich in cholesterol in your gall bladder or your gall bladder is affected with some kind of infection. Either ways, it leads to formation of stones inside your gall bladder. The movement of these stones (calculus) within the gallbladder cause abdomen pain in you. Sometimes one of these stones can block the opening of the gallbladder. This causes inflammation or enlargement of the gall bladder, and this is what is known as Acute Cholecystitis.

Causes for Gall stones, leading to Gall bladder Calculus

According to the survey conducted by the Harvard Institute of Health Publications, more than 80% of gall stones are made up of cholesterol, while the remaining 20 percent of gall stones comprise of calcium salts and bilirubin. A look at each one of the causes, briefly

1. Cholesterol stones

Gall stones develop, when your body produces far too much of cholesterol, over the permissible limits. Bile is capable of dissolving or breaking up of cholesterol. But when your liver produces too much of cholesterol, than what the bile can dissolve, it leads to formation of hard stones.

2. Concentrated bile

Your gall bladder is supposed to empty the bile content, at the start of the digestion process. But if your gall bladder fails to empty the bile content, the concentrated juice leads to formation of stones, inside your bladder.

3. Infection

Sometimes parasitic infection or bacterial infection within the gallbladder can act as a source around which calcium and a chemical called bilirubin can accumulate and lead to formation of pigment stones

Symptoms for Gall Bladder Calculus

Many a time people do not have symptoms and gall stone disease is detected incidentally.

Symptoms may include

• Right sided upper abdomen pain, mostly after food intake, this pain might also be felt near the shoulder blade.
• Nausea and vomiting

• Loss of appetite
• Fever, chills - when you have acute cholecystitis
• Yellow discoloration of eyes and urine – Jaundice and
• Clay colored stools

Diagnosis

The doctor performs the following tests, to check if you are diagnosed with an acute calculus of gall bladder. These include

1. Blood tests
2. X-rays
3. MRI and CT scans
4. Ultrasonography and

5. OCG (Oral Cholecystogram) scan

Treatment procedure, for Gall bladder Calculus

The treatment is surgical and involves removal of the gallbladder and not the stones only. Timing of surgery depends on the severity of symptoms.

In gallstone disease without inflammation- You can have a planned laparoscopic removal of the gallbladder.

While in acute cholecystitis associated with inflammation along with fever and severe pain treatment involves:

• Admission
• Antibiotics,
• Medicines to relieve pain
• Fasting
• And surgery once inflammation subsides

Laparoscopic removal of gall bladder is the gold standard treatment now and always preferred against open surgery. It involves three or four small incisions in the abdomen approximately half inch size, through which the gall bladder is removed. Recovery is so fast that you may be able to go home within 24 hours.

Once home you don’t have specific restrictions regarding diet and life style and you are back to your work in two or three days.