Asymptomatic gallstones should not be taken lightly!

The incidence of gallstones is increasing, many patients do not think that it is common, or the treatment method is indecisive and delayed, in fact, ignoring gallstones may cause more serious consequences. Gallstones are sometimes very “quiet”: many people are surprised when they discover gallstones through ultrasound during a medical checkup: they are usually fine and do not feel any discomfort. How can there be gallstones? In fact, this is the “quiet type of cholelithiasis”. As gallbladder stones begin to form, people often do not feel, some only have a slight abdominal distension or hidden pain, and then whether the symptoms will appear, depending on the size of the stone, the location, whether the obstruction, with or without inflammation. Therefore, many people do not realize that they have gallbladder stones until they suddenly experience symptoms such as right upper abdominal pain. Some people with gallbladder stones may also remain asymptomatic for the rest of their lives. Whether or not gallstones produce symptoms depends primarily on whether or not the stones are blocking the gallbladder duct, producing cholestasis and infection. Secondly, it depends on whether the stone causes mechanical irritation of the gallbladder mucosa. Therefore, asymptomatic stones are usually cholesterol stones that are small in number, large in size, and relatively smooth in surface, which roll back and forth in the gallbladder with little amplitude, and are not prone to sudden blockage of the cystic duct, and it is difficult to fall into the common bile duct through the narrow cystic duct. It is also difficult to fall into the common bile duct through the narrow cystic duct. Therefore, there is less chance of acute obstruction symptoms, and some people can even live without biliary colic for the rest of their lives. No symptoms does not mean no disease: in recent years around us cholelithiasis is increasingly common, so patients as long as the onset of infrequent, generally do not think, gallstones are foreign objects, often make the gallbladder chronic inflammation, manifested in the thickening of the gallbladder wall, around the inflammatory adhesions, or the mucous membrane with cholesterol crystals deposition, affecting the concentration of bile in the gallbladder and the contraction of bile discharge of the normal function of the gallbladder. In addition, some small stones in the process of falling into the common bile duct and discharging into the duodenum, will be secondary to choledocholithiasis, acute cholangitis and biliary pancreatitis. Can also damage the end of the common bile duct Oddi’s sphincter, resulting in the end of the common bile duct stenosis, some large stones embedded, compression of the gallbladder and its neighboring organs will form an internal fistula. Neglecting the treatment of gallstones may also lead to a serious consequence, namely gallbladder cancer. In the past, people were familiar only with gallstones and cholecystitis, but nowadays, with the increase of gallstones, the incidence of gallbladder cancer has increased. Current studies have not yet found the direct etiology of gallbladder cancer, but about 70% of patients develop the disease related to the presence of gallstones. The risk of gallbladder cancer in patients with combined stones is 13.7 times higher than that without stones, which is mainly due to the fact that the presence of gallstones often causes long-term chronic inflammation and infection of the gallbladder mucosa, which tends to disorganize the regulation of cell proliferation, thus leading to cancer. Although the incidence of biliary tract malignant tumors is not as high as stomach cancer, colon cancer and other common tumors in the digestive tract, but due to the difficulty of early diagnosis, most patients have already lost the best time for surgery when they are found to be suffering from this disease. In addition, the tumor itself is prone to early invasion of the surrounding blood vessels, lymphatic vessels, nerve bundles, etc. Even if radical surgery is performed, the prognosis of some patients is still not optimistic. Therefore, biliary examination should be strengthened in case of jaundice, epigastric discomfort (especially right upper abdomen), and shoulder and back discomfort. Colic or vague pain is a sign of onset: quiet gallstones are not absolutely quiet. There are two types of gallstone pain: biliary colic occurs in about 20% of “quiet” gallstone patients each year. During symptom-free intervals, the stone floats around in the gallbladder, in which case the patient does not feel anything. When eating greasy food or at night, gallbladder stones are easily stuck in the neck of the gallbladder or the gallbladder duct, once the stone is embedded, the bile in the gallbladder can not flow out, so that the pressure in the gallbladder increases, the gallbladder swells, and the contraction of the gallbladder at this time produces severe colic pain. This kind of colic is often persistent paroxysmal aggravation, serious cases of gallbladder rupture, biliary peritonitis life-threatening. Gallstones are usually pain in the upper right abdomen, and some patients with a particularly long gallbladder will experience pain in the lower right abdomen, and gallstone pain sometimes radiates to the back of the right shoulder. Certain diseases such as heart disease can also have pain in the back of the shoulder, so it is important to distinguish between them. Chronic cholecystitis pain is often not severe pain, but hidden pain, or only manifested as abdominal discomfort, often easily mistaken for chronic gastritis, gastric ulcer, duodenal ulcer and so on. However, it should not be assumed that only the appearance of abdominal pain is a symptom of the onset of the disease, some patients can also be jaundice and high fever as the first symptom.