What are gallstones? | Corewell Health

They can be as small as a grain of sand or as big as a golf ball.

And they can cause a lot of pain.

Gallstones affect millions of people of all ages each year.

Certain factors can increase your risk. If you are a woman and have had children or are over 40, the risk of developing gallstones is higher.

Other contributing factors include being overweight, diabetes, or a family history of gallstones.

Gallstones can lead to a gallbladder attack, which may begin as waves of cramping under the right side of the rib cage before gradually radiating down the back, progressing to severe pain, nausea, diarrhea or vomitings.

And since the typical American diet is high in fat, often higher in animal fat than vegetable fat, gallbladder problems have become quite common.

“We don’t know exactly what causes the gallbladder to malfunction, but we do know that the stones result from cholesterol in the bile,” Jeffrey Gawel, MD, surgeon general at Corewell Health, said. “Reducing your cholesterol can be a good preventive measure, as well as weight loss in general.”

Gallstones typically affect people between the ages of 20 and 74, but they can also develop in patients in their mid-teens and in people between the ages of 80 and 90.

For young people, obesity may be a contributing factor. For older people, it may simply be the result of an aging gallbladder.

What are gallstones?

The gallbladder stores bile produced by the liver. This bile is mainly a mixture of cholesterol, bilirubin and bile salts.

After eating, the gallbladder releases bile through small ducts into your digestive system to help digest fat. Some of these substances, however, can harden into gallstoneswhich can get stuck in the digestive tract and block the flow of bile.

This can cause gallbladder spasms, which creates gallbladder attacks.

“There is a myth that a gallbladder attack can happen after eating a large meal,” Dr. Gawel said. ” This is not entirely true. It is not the size of the meal but the amount of fat in the meal that stimulates the gallbladder – and this can cause an attack, usually about half an hour after the meal.

A gallbladder attack can last anywhere from 30 minutes to four hours.

A doctor can diagnose gallstones in a number of ways, including using ultrasound, a small-bore oscilloscope called SpyGlass, and a combination of X-rays and endoscopy.

Once diagnosed, gallstones must be treated. Untreated, they can lead to infection or inflammation, called cholecystitis, which can cause fever and pain.

And gallstones are not like kidney stones, which can pass through the body without medical intervention.

“If you have symptoms related to (gallstones), you will need to have surgery to remove your gallbladder,” Dr. Gawel said. “It’s the second most common operation I perform.”

The right treatment

The procedure to remove the gallbladder and gallstones is called a cholecystectomy.

It takes less than an hour. To recover, you will need approximately three to seven days before resuming your regular activities.

Because the gallbladder is not an essential organ, you can live a normal life without it.

After a surgeon removes the gallbladder, bile will flow out of the ducts and directly into the digestive system, rather than being stored in the gallbladder.

In the past, gallbladder removal required major surgery. Today, it is almost always performed via a minimally invasive laparoscopic outpatient procedure.

Before and after surgery, Dr. Gawel advises patients to avoid high fat foods. This includes fast food.

“One in 20 people may notice an intolerance to fatty foods even after surgery,” Dr. Gawel said. “They may suffer from diarrhea after a fatty meal. We recommend avoiding fatty foods immediately after surgery and then gradually reintroducing fats into your diet.

Dr. Gawel also recommends avoiding untested quick fixes that you might find on the internet.

“Don’t try what you may see online called hot flashes,” he warned. “It’s ingesting pure oil after going days without any fat in your diet in an attempt to ‘flush’ stones from your gallbladder. This can actually cause a gallbladder attack requiring intervention. emergency surgery.

If you experience discomfort in your upper abdomen when eating fatty or greasy foods, make an appointment with your GP.