Gallstone surgery is basically a surgery conducted to remove one’s gallbladder that causes symptoms of moderate to severe pain due to the presence of gallstones.
What are gallstones?
Gallstones lurk inside your gallbladder that are very unnoticeable at first. Many people have gallstones without even knowing it. These gallstones are hard deposits in your gallbladder, the small organ that stores bile, which is a digestive fluid made in the liver. Gallstones may consist of cholesterol, salt, or bilirubin, which is discarded red blood cells. Gallstones range in size, that can be as small as a grain of sand or as large as an apricot.
What Causes Gallstones?
According to Harvard Health Publications, 80 percent of gallstones are made of cholesterol. The other 20 percent of gallstones are made of calcium salts and bilirubin, known as pigment stones.
The components in bile can crystallize and harden in your gallbladder, leading to gallstones. Gallstones may develop when there is too much cholesterol in the bile secreted by your liver. Bile usually dissolves or breaks down cholesterol. However, if your liver makes more cholesterol than your bile can dissolve, hard stones may develop.
Whilst, a newer procedure, called laparoscopic cholecystectomy, is less invasive and has fewer complications. During this procedure, instruments (eg. a light and a camera) are passed through several small incisions in the abdomen.
The surgeon views the inside of the body by looking at a video monitor. This procedure is used in of the majority of gallbladder removals. After the surgery, the patient spends the night in the hospital.
Image Credits: hpbsurgery, istudymedicine, gallstonediets, tajpharma
