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Originally Posted by Brad
I've never had the surgery myself, but have watched it countless times...
It wouldn't surprise me if it's the most common surgery performed next to say c-sections and hysterectomies. It's pretty routine surgery, now done almost exclusively laparascopically...meaning they punch 3 very small holes in your abdomen. One is near your navel, and that's where the camera goes in. The other two are in your right upper abdomen, near your gallbladder. That's where they put in the instruments to isolate the gallbladder from the liver, clip the ducts, and remove it. All that with just tiny scars. Now, sometimes they can get in there and things may be a huge mess...such as scar tissue or the anatomy may be in such a way that it is very difficult for the surgeons to see anything with the camera. In that case, they'll have to go ahead and cut a regular incision into the abdomen and remove the gallbladder that way. But out of the say 20 gallbladder removals I've seen, I think I only saw them do that once.
Your symptoms sound like they could be gallbladder. Many, many people have gallstones (cholelithiasis) alone (most common are overweight/obese women over 40, although anyone can get them). If there are no symptoms or signs of obstruction, typically nothing is done. I think you can have laser treatment to break the stones up, but you're probably just going to reform them later anyway.
But sometimes the stones can get stuck in a duct and cause blockage (biliary colic). With that you typically will experience crampy right upper abdominal pain that comes and goes and is worse after meals, especially those high in fat. The gallbladder can also become infected (cholecystitis)if a stone is blocking the duct, and this causes severe, steady right upper abdominal pain, fever, high white blood cell count, and abnormal liver enzymes. In either case, the gallbladder is almost always taken out to prevent further complications. Your liver is actually what makes bile (the gallbladder just helps to store it) and it will continue to do so even after the gallbladder is gone. It (the liver) also has a duct that feeds the bile to your small intestines, so there is no problem with not having enough bile get into your system.
Anyway, I rambled on and on basically to say...if it is gallbladder, don't worry too much about it! It's very common and very routine surgery. If you have surgery you'll be fine in a day or two!
Sorry for the rather verbose response. But I'm actually being unleashed into the real world of medicine July 1 when residency starts, and I figure I may as well start practicing now!
Oh, and on edit: if it is anything to do with the gallbladder (any of the things I mentiones above), the ultrasound will find it!
Brad
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