What kind of gallbladder stones require surgery?

       Patients with asymptomatic gallbladder stones are often encountered in clinical practice and are hesitant to operate. In fact, medical opinion has long been divided on the management of these patients, but in recent years, there has been a growing consensus at home and abroad that some patients with asymptomatic gallbladder stones should be treated surgically. Survey data show that about half of gallbladder stone patients can remain asymptomatic for life, so many doctors do not advocate surgery.  However, studies have shown that there is a close relationship between gallbladder cancer and the occurrence of gallbladder stones, and it is even believed that gallbladder stones are a precancerous lesion of gallbladder cancer. Studies have shown that the risk of gallbladder cancer in patients with gallbladder stones is 6-15 times higher than that in patients without stones, and the risk of gallbladder cancer in patients with a diameter of 3 cm or more is 10 times higher than that in patients with a diameter of 1 cm or less.  In addition, the duration of stones is also related to the occurrence of gallbladder cancer. The long-term existence of gallbladder stones will cause gallbladder atrophy and calcification, and among patients with calcified gallbladder or porcelain-like gallbladder, 20% to 60% of them will develop gallbladder cancer.  Therefore, although asymptomatic gallbladder stones have no obvious spontaneous discomfort, they are not harmless to the body, and surgery is still recommended for patients with a long history of asymptomatic stones.  For patients with multiple small gallbladder stones, the stones can easily get stuck in the cystic duct or fall directly into the common bile duct, causing acute cholecystitis or obstructive jaundice (cholecystitis develops when the stones get stuck in the outlet of the gallbladder, resulting in poor bile flow and secondary inflammation, and small stones can easily get stuck in the outlet of the gallbladder. (the blockage, the bile flows backward into the blood, causing serious problems such as sepsis, jaundice, and shock).  Therefore, for patients with multiple small gallbladder stones, especially those with hypertension and diabetes (hypertension can be aggravated by inflammation of the gallbladder, and patients with diabetes have poor resistance to infection, and once inflammation and infection are not easily controlled), surgery is recommended.  In addition, some of our patients tend to visit the doctor during acute attacks of cholecystitis, eager for immediate surgery to relieve the pain, in fact, emergency surgery is not a good time for surgery, and most patients can be cured with regular anti-inflammatory conservative treatment.  At present, laparoscopic cholecystectomy is a widely carried out surgical method at home and abroad, which has the advantages of small trauma, light pain, fast recovery, safety and few complications, and has basically replaced the traditional open cholecystectomy.  Emergency laparoscopic surgery is less safe, has more chances of complications, and is not advocated in most units, so because acute cholecystitis receives surgical treatment, most units will choose open cholecystectomy.  Therefore, it is generally recommended that patients receive laparoscopic surgery when they are asymptomatic without an episode of cholecystitis or after 3 months of an episode of cholecystitis.