Gallbladder Treatment

Out of Site and Out of Pain

Gallbladder treatment is for when gallbladder symptoms are severe. Usually gallbladder symptoms and attacks are from gallstones and when the symptoms are severe, gallbladder treatment will be needed. Sometimes gallstones are discovered when there are no symptoms. A CT or ultrasound may discover gallbladder stones. Usually if there are no symptoms, the healthcare professional will choose to just leave them alone so while the gallstones are out of site and the patient is out of pain, there will be no treatment.

Once the gallbladder symptoms become severe and the gallstones are no longer out of site and the pain is severe, it will be time for gallbladder treatment. These are some of the treatments that are available:

Laparoscopic Cholycystectomy

A laparoscopic cholycystectomy is when the gallbladder is surgically removed. This treatment is chosen when the symptoms are severe or there have been reoccurring gallbladder attacks. It may also be chosen by a healthcare professional if the there seems to be a high number of gallstones and/or the gallstones are large in size. Gallstones problems tend to recur frequently. It may be a tendency towards them or it may be the diet and other lifestyle factors that contributed to the gallstones in the first place aren't changed, so the gallstones continue to form.

The surgery requires a tiny incision when a laparoscopic cholecystectomy is performed. It can be done as an outpatient and normal activities often resumed within days.

A person can live a healthy life without a gallbladder because the bile from the liver will still be produced and it will still flow to the intestines. The body will just no longer be able to store bile in the gallbladder. Food will digest the same as before the cholecystectomy, but a person without a gallbladder is more likely to have diarrhea.

Gallbladder Medications

To avoid surgery, some doctors choose to prescribe medications to dissolve gallstones if the attacks are not frequent or if there is a medical condition that would make surgery too risky for the patient. Medication taken orally for gallstones works slowly to dissolve gallstones and it can take months or years to dissolve the gallstones. A newer procedure that is still being tested, injects the medication into the gallbladder and it looks like the gallstones can be dissolved more quickly in this way.

Alternative Gallbladder Treatment

Any time that the gallbladder remains after treatment for gallstones, it there is always the risk of reoccurrence of the symptoms of a gallbladder attack from gallstones. A healthy diet and lifestyle can reduce the risks of reoccurrence of the gallstones. Some alternative treatments:

Oral bile acid dissolutions therapy
Contact solvent dissolution
Extraction by using a catheter that is place into the gallbladder
Shock-wave lithotripsy to fragment the stone and combined with bile acid dissolution

When choosing the right gallstone treatment look at all options and consult with a healthcare professional. The decision will be based in part by the severity of the gallbladder symptoms.

Gallbladder Treatment