When faced with gallstones and surgery there are many questions that immediately come to mind. Below are some of the most common questions about Gallstones Surgery.
If I avoid fatty food will my pain go away?
Although there are thousands of people with asymptomatic gallstones, once you start getting pain and discomfort from your gallbladder the pain will never go away until you have surgery to remove your gallbladder. You are likely to reduce the incidence of attacks if you stick to a fat free diet, but your symptoms will persist until you have your gallbladder removed.
Can anything else be done other than surgery?
You can take tablets which dissolve gallstones but they only work in about 10% of people. They take months to dissolve the gallstones and once you stop taking the tablets the gallstones reappear. There are also other natural ways to dissolve gallstones.
Many patients ask about shock wave treatment to the gallstones. This is not recommended since the fragments of stone will then pass down the common bile duct and cause life threatening conditions such as cholangitis and pancreatitis.
Can gallstones can be removed without removing the gallbladder?
Opening the gallbladder to remove gallstones would be highly risky. You will need to take after gallbladder surgery supplements and vitamins moving forward.. The gallbladder has a tenuous blood supply and would not repair well after such surgery. The end result would be a life threatening bile leak. Also, even if this was possible, you would still have your gallbladder and you would make more stones.
What are gallbladder polyps?
True gallbladder polyps are quite rare and are small growths of tissue on the inside wall of the gallbladder. They are usually asymptomatic and benign. Once they reach 5mm in size cholecystectomy is recommended since there is a tiny theoretical risk of these polyps becoming cancerous.
Most gallbladder polyps are in fact cholesterol stones stuck to the inside wall of the gallbladder. Often people have symptoms and cholecystectomy is recommended.
Will I go home the same day?
How long will I be off work?
The average time back to work is 11 days with a range from 2 days to 3 weeks. Our advice is to warn your colleagues at work that you may be off work for 3 weeks.
What happens to bile after I have my gallbladder removed?
Your liver continues to make bile at the rate of 500mls per day, but now the bile duct becomes the storage vessel rather than the gallbladder. Your bile duct undergoes a natural adaptation and widens from 0.5cm to 1 cm. When you eat, the valve at the lower end of your bile duct opens and your bile enters your intestine and mixes with your food. Most people notice no change in their overall makeup, other than the fact that their pain has gone.
What are the side effects from having your gallbladder removed?
The vast majority of patients have no side effects but are simply glad that their pain has gone. One or two people in every hundred have an increased frequency in bowel habit or a touch of indigestion. These problems usually resolve after a month or two.
Can I produce stones after my operation?
Gallstone crystals may form in the common bile duct after you have had your operation, but at least three times a day the valve at the lower end opens and the bile is flushed through into the duodenum. Therefore it is very unlikely that any crystals will stay in the common bile duct and grow into gallstones.
What is the biggest risk from cholecystectomy?
The most serious risk from this operation is an injury to your bile duct. This occurs in less than 0.5% of patients. It is recommended to carry out a special X-ray during the operation called a cholangiogram which gives the surgeon a road map of the bile ducts. In this way the chance of injury is reduced to a minimum
