Gallbladder Disease

Gallbladder Disease – General Information

The gall bladder is a pear-shaped body organ of small size. It is found in the underside of the patient’s liver (an organ that produces a substance called bile). The gall bladder is supposed to store the bile until the substance is needed to ensure an appropriate digestion of fats.  

Gallbladder Disease is, unfortunately, a quite common medical condition. Studies have shown that more female patients rather than male patients develop this disease every year. The most common cause of the patient’s disorder is the presence of gallstones. Gallstones are rough crystalline bodies that form in the organism’s gall bladder. They are generally made of calcium, bile salts and cholesterol. Their size is known to vary from very few millimeters to several centimeters. A patient will develop gallstones if his or her bile (the substance that is secreted by the patient’s liver) is too rich in cholesterol. The gallstones are made from the excess of this substance that is known to form crystals inside the gall bladder.
The presence of gallstones is not unusual. It is known that although adults and elderly patients are more prone to developing this medical condition, children and teenagers can also be affected (even if the reported clinical cases were rare). A patient is more prone to developing Gallbladder Disease if he or she:

• Have any relatives who have developed gallstones.
• Are overweight.
• Have abnormally high levels of blood cholesterol.
• Are taking medicines that contain estrogen, (such as birth control pills)
• Are suffering from other medical conditions that trigger chronic intestinal inflammations (such as Ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease and so on).

Gallbladder Disease – Symptoms

All patients must be aware of the fact that not all types of gallstones make their presence noticed (through symptoms and / or signs). The gall stones that are discovered accidentally (though an X-ray or another type of scan) do not need therapy (in most of the clinical cases). However, this decision must be made after a discussion with your personal physician. He or she will be able to tell you the risks and benefits of your future choice. Patients who suffer from Gallbladder Disease can experience: sporadic pain that is located below the ribs or in the upper abdomen that can spread between the shoulder blades or to the right shoulder, excessive wind, nausea and / or vomiting, and so on. In some medical cases, the pain is highly persistent. Other individuals who presented Gallbladder Disease also complained of high temperature, tenderness under the right ribs, worsening of the symptoms when cough, moving or performing other simple activities, and so on. Other patients who have been diagnosed with Gallbladder Disease presented jaundice (in such clinical cases, the patient’s eye and skin becomes yellow). This symptom is generally caused when the bile cannot flow away from the liver due to an abnormal obstruction. This is why not all patients who present jaundice and are suffering from a disorder of the gall bladder present gallstones. Other symptoms that have been associated with this medical condition include skin itchiness, dark urine, paleness, chills, and so on.

Gallbladder Disease – Treatment

The recurrent attacks that cause mild pain can be treated at home with non-prescription pain-killers. Some patients benefited from another simple solution: the placement of something warm (not hot) on their abdomen. Another trick that might help reducing the frequency of the attacks is to try and follow a diet with less fat. In order to diagnose a patient who is suspected to suffer from Gallbladder Disease, the physician will want to take some blood samples (this will show whether the liver is working as it should). Another way that is commonly used to detect the presence of gallstones is the use of a scanner that employs ultrasounds. This method is painless, quick and very efficient / accurate. However, if the scanning brought an inconclusive result (this may occur in some medical cases), further tests are needed. They include MRI scans and CT-scans. If a patient undergoes endoscopic retrograde cholangio-pancreatography (generally abbreviated as ERCP), his or her physician will be able to see whether they present stones in the organism’s bile ducts.

After the patient has been diagnosed with Gallbladder Disease, he or she will require immediate therapy. However, as we have already stated in the previous chapter, the stones that did not trigger any unpleasant signs do not require a special prophylaxis. Most patients are able to control them by following a special diet. However, if the disorder worsens and severe symptoms start to appear, the patient ought to consider surgery as a viable option. However, there are other therapy methods that have proved to be quite efficient in the case of patients with Gallbladder Disease (that did not include any surgical procedures). For example, the dissolution treatment employs special medical products that are sometimes able to dissolve a certain type of stone. The most commonly prescribed medicines are Urdox tablets (that are based on ursodeoxycholic acid). However, all patients must be aware that this type of therapy requires a lot of time until the results are seen. Furthermore, even if the stones were entirely dissolved, they are bound to appear again after the intake of Urdox is stopped. Furthermore, it is known that not all gallstones can be dissolved through such a therapy. In order for a patient to be able to undergo this type of prophylaxis, his or her stones must be radiolucent and medium or small in size.

Another popular technique for sufferers of Gallbladder Disease is lithotripsy. In this prophylaxis, single stones that are present in the bile ducts or in the patient’s gall bladder might be 'shattered' with the help of sound energy. However, the remaining fragments of the gallstone must be removed through dissolution therapy or though ERCP. If a patient has no other option (if his condition has proved to be highly resistant to all other therapy options) he or she will probably have to undergo surgery. The most popular type of operation is called cholecystectomy; in this case, the patient’s stones will be removed along with the patient’s bladder.