How long can you live with gallstones?

  Gallstones do not usually affect a patient’s life expectancy. If gallstones become cancerous and become gallbladder cancer, it may affect the patient’s life expectancy.  Gallstones are usually gallbladder stones. In the case of quiescent gallbladder stones, they usually do not cause clinical symptoms or result in complications and do not affect the patient’s survival. In some patients, gallbladder stones can cause calculous cholecystitis, which may be risky, especially in elderly patients with underlying diseases such as combined diabetes, angina pectoris, myocardial infarction, and cerebral infarction, and death may occur during the onset of acute calculous cholecystitis or during surgery, but the chances are relatively small. If gallbladder stones become cancerous and become gallbladder cancer, the five-year survival of the patient will not exceed 5% even with surgical treatment.  Therefore, laparoscopic surgery should be actively performed for gallbladder stones with indications for surgery to prevent them from becoming cancerous and having an impact on the patient’s survival.