Some common questions for patients with gallstones

  Gallstone disease is a common and frequent disease, and with the improvement of people’s life, rich nutrition and longer actual life expectancy, this disease has a tendency to increase year by year. However, there are many misconceptions about the disease and its treatment among the common people, and the high-tech laparoscopic surgical technique, known as keyhole surgery or minimally invasive surgery, which is a milestone in the development of surgical science and technology in the 20th century, is undoubtedly the first choice among the treatment methods for gallstone disease.  Compared with traditional laparotomy, laparoscopic cholecystectomy has become the gold standard for gallbladder stone treatment at home and abroad with the advantages of less trauma, less pain, shorter operation time, quicker recovery period and cosmetic appearance, which has won praise from patients and high evaluation from the medical community. The following we answer some of the concerns of the majority of patients about gallstones: What are the dangers of gallbladder stones?  1, recurrent gallbladder infection: the common symptoms are biliary colic, hidden pain, distension, nausea and vomiting and other discomfort, sometimes involving the right shoulder or back. The frequency of attacks is sometimes once every few years, sometimes once every few months, and sometimes several times a month. If the stone is obstructed in the jugular abdomen or the cystic duct, it can cause right upper abdominal biliary colic; 2. Secondary common bile duct stones: sometimes small stones or bile sludge can be drained by the gallbladder into the common bile duct, causing obstruction of the common bile duct, producing jaundice, causing impairment of liver function, and even causing purulent cholangitis. Acute pancreatitis: small stones or bile sludge discharged into the bile duct can be further discharged into the duodenum, sometimes embedded in the common opening of the bile duct and pancreatic duct or damage the sphincter at the end of the common bile duct, repeatedly causing narrowing and edema at the end of the common bile duct, resulting in impaired pancreatic juice excretion or bile reflux into the bile duct secondary to cholestatic pancreatitis. 4.Cancer: Gallstones are the main cause of gallbladder cancer, and chronic inflammation of gallbladder and the stimulation of bile acid and bile salt in gallstones can easily cause cancer of gallbladder mucosa. The malignancy of gallbladder cancer is extremely high, and the treatment effect is very unsatisfactory.  What are the methods to treat gallbladder stones?  The treatment of gallbladder stones has undergone many explorations, one is conservative methods, such as herbal lithotripsy, lithotripsy by Chinese and Western medicine, lithotripsy by shock wave lithotripsy, and taking anti-inflammatory and cholestatic drugs; the other category is the methods of gallbladder removal, such as dissection cholecystectomy, small incision cholecystectomy and laparoscopic cholecystectomy. The purpose of the first type of method is to preserve the gallbladder, but the disadvantage is that the treatment effect is too poor, not to remove the root of the disease, and it is easy to recur, and even cause secondary bile duct stones or pancreatitis and other serious complications; the second type of method although there is a certain degree of trauma, but the treatment effect is reliable, without the disadvantage of stone recurrence. Therefore, surgery is the most effective way to treat gallstones.