Gallbladder Surgery
Treatment for gallstones that cause signs and symptoms
Treatment options for gallstones include:
- Surgery to remove the gallbladder (cholecystectomy): Your doctor may recommend Gallbladder Surgery, since gallstones frequently recur. Once your gallbladder is removed, bile flows directly from your liver into your small intestine, rather than being stored in your gallbladder. You don’t need your gallbladder to live, and gallbladder removal doesn’t affect your ability to digest food, but it can cause diarrhea, which is usually temporary.
- Medications to dissolve gallstones: Medications you take by mouth may help dissolve gallstones. But it may take months or years of treatment to dissolve your gallstones in this way. Sometimes medications don’t work. Medications for gallstones aren’t commonly used and are reserved for people who can’t undergo surgery.
GALL BLADDER SURGERY:
These surgeries could be done
- Laparoscopically ,known as Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy or
- SILS / SMILS Cholecystectomy
- Open Cholecystectomy.
The most common surgery for Gall stones is Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy where your surgeon removes the diseased Gall Bladder through small holes made on the abdomen. They are usually 4 in number. Your usual stay is 1 day or so in the hospital. SMILS/SILS is a recent form of Laparoscopic surgery where the surgery is done only through a single incision from the belly button. This is perticullary useful if you want to avoid any marks on the body. However, the post surgery pain may be similar or more than the conventional Laparoscopy. Open surgery is now reserved for instances where the surgeon is unable to proceed with laparoscopic surgery due to uncertain anatomy or problems concerned to operative safety. Sometimes the surgeon may take the decision to convert or do an open procedure as the Gall Bladder may look malignant on preopertaive scan.
