Nowadays, the incidence of gallbladder stones is increasing, many patients have an insidious onset and are detected by occasional ultrasound, and some patients have serious complications at the initial onset. So what exactly are gallbladder stones, what are their manifestations, and how should they be treated? The following article will explain each of them.
What are gallbladder stones?
The job of the gallbladder is to store bile. Bile is produced by the liver and helps with digestion. Gallstones are hard lumps that form in the bile ducts or gallbladder. Bile is made up of cholesterol, water, fat, protein, bile salts and bilirubin. One of them is bilirubin, a yellowish-brown pigment. Gallstones can form when bile contains too much cholesterol or bilirubin.
What are the symptoms and dangers of gallbladder stones?
1.Asymptomatic patients
Most patients with gallbladder stones can be asymptomatic for a long time or even for life, or have only minor indigestion symptoms, such as hidden pain in the upper abdomen, bloating, fullness after meals, etc. Many patients are occasionally detected by ultrasound during physical examination. According to the long-term follow-up of some patients with asymptomatic stones, it was found that these patients have a mild disease course, and few of them will develop serious symptoms and require surgery within 10-15 years.
2.Symptoms and even serious complications
Typical gallbladder stone symptoms are mainly biliary colic, pain in the right upper abdomen or quadrant of the rib cage, radiating to the back or right shoulder, usually caused by stones embedded in the neck of the gallbladder or the gallbladder duct, and also associated with gallbladder contraction. The duration of the pain varies from 30 minutes to 6 hours. Persistent obstruction of the gallbladder duct triggers an inflammatory response that may lead to acute gallbladder inflammation (acute cholecystitis) if it lasts more than 6 hours. If a stone falls from the gallbladder into the common bile duct causing obstruction it can lead to common bile duct stones and even life-threatening complications such as acute obstructive septic cholangitis and pancreatitis.
In addition, the most serious complication of long-term gallbladder stones is gallbladder cancer. However, it is generally very unlikely to occur. Large stones, Amerindian, porcelain gallbladder and abnormal pancreaticobiliary duct merging are considered high risk factors for gallbladder cancer.
What are the high-risk factors for gallbladder stones?
1. Obesity, overweight
Studies have shown that as the body mass index (BMI) increases, the formation rate, growth rate and the probability of symptoms of gallbladder stones will also increase. Those whose body weight exceeds the normal standard by more than 15% are five times more likely to suffer from gallstones than normal people. Body mass index = weight (kg) ÷ height^2 (m) Normal body mass index: 18.5 to 24.
2.Irregular eating
The gallbladder is an organ for storing and concentrating bile. Eating prompts the gallbladder to contract and stimulates bile secretion, which helps digestion after being discharged into the intestine. Regular eating three meals a day enables the bile in the gallbladder to be discharged at regular intervals and does not cause excessive concentration, so as to prevent the formation of gallstones. Reported a large number of diet and do not eat breakfast people, within four months, 1/3 of people suffer from gallstones.
3, high fat, high calorie, too sweet food
High-fat, high-calorie food, so that the body metabolism disorder, the remaining nutrients accumulate in the body leading to obesity, high cholesterol concentration in blood and bile, resulting in the gallbladder bile ratio imbalance, the formation of gallstones.
4.Gender
The incidence of women is significantly higher than that of men.
5.Patients with rapid weight loss
Patients with rapid weight loss in a short period of time, such as patients after weight loss surgery or rapid weight loss, have a significantly higher probability of developing gallbladder stones.
6. Parasitic infection
In areas with high prevalence of gallstones in China, 70% of gallstones are centered on roundworm eggs and roundworm residues. If you eat uncleanly and swallow roundworm eggs, the roundworms can enter the bile duct against the current, lay eggs in the bile duct, die and cause bile duct infection, all of which can become the core body of stones and form gallstones.
How to treat gallbladder stones when found?
The current treatment for gallbladder stones includes both medication as well as surgical treatment.
Patients with asymptomatic gallbladder stones are not recommended to undergo cholecystectomy, but are usually treated with medical drugs and regular follow-up. Surgical intervention is required when the following manifestations occur during the follow-up process.
1. No relief of epigastric pain or recurrent episodes, affecting life and work.
2. Gradual thickening of the gallbladder wall of 4 mm or more.
3.Gallbladder stones increase and enlarge year by year, combined with gallbladder dysfunction or impairment.
4. Ceramic-like changes in the gallbladder wall.