Can medications also cause gallbladder stones?

Gallbladder stones are a common and frequent disease in our daily life. With the improvement of people’s living standard, the incidence of gallbladder stones in China is on the rise year by year. Now, everyone’s health awareness has generally been greatly improved, talking about the causes of gallbladder stones, many people can say a whole lot, such as obesity, high-fat diet, do not eat breakfast, hyperlipidemia and so on. However, did you know that many medications can also cause gallbladder stones? A lot of drugs can also cause gallbladder stones. It has happened more than once before, some patients due to ultrasound found gallbladder stones and surgery, the results of surgery to remove the gallbladder but found that the gallbladder is clean, a good gallbladder removed is indeed a strange pity. So, which drugs can lead to gallbladder stones? 1, ceftriaxone: the application of ceftriaxone after the occurrence of reversible cholestasis symptoms, the reason is that into the bile of ceftriaxone metabolite calcium salts are easy to precipitate in the gallbladder, to become a “stone nucleus”, induced cholelithiasis. 2, estrogen: such as birth control pills. Estrogen can directly affect the liver and gallbladder function, can make bile synthesis decrease, cholesterol secretion increase, at the same time affect the gallbladder’s contraction and discharge of bile function, which can form gallstones. 3, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs: because of its metabolite excretion through the gallbladder, it can form crystals in the bile duct (i.e., stone precursors). 4, total gastrointestinal nutrition drugs: due to the application of total gastrointestinal nutrition drugs, most of the patients with poor gastrointestinal function, gastrointestinal tract lack of food stimulation, resulting in poor bile duct contraction resulting in bile stasis, cholestasis and cholelithiasis can occur after long-term application. 5, Pansentin (dipyridamole): the vast majority of the drug from the bile excretion, long-term use of Pansentin can form insoluble substances, precipitated in the gallbladder bile, prompting the formation of gallstones. Due to the special circumstances, we will focus on gallbladder stones due to ceftriaxone. This type of stone is special because it is “reversible”, so this guy can do magic. According to the study, 25% ~ 45% of patients taking ceftriaxone, bile stasis occurs, the main component of the stasis is ceftriaxone calcium salt caused by particulate matter. After discontinuing the drug, the bile acid pool in the gallbladder returns to balance and re-dissolves the cholesterol stones, and the ceftriaxone calcium salt dissolves to the point where the stones disappear. This is called “reversible stone formation”, or pseudolithiasis. Ceftriaxone-induced lithiasis is summarized in the following characteristics: 1. Stones occur quickly and dissolve quickly. The fastest appearance is on the 2nd day after the administration of the drug, and the fastest disappearance is on the 11th day after the discontinuation of the drug. 2.Stones are usually small in diameter or sediment-like. 3.Whether stones occur or not is determined by the characteristics of the drug itself, and is related to the dose and course of treatment. 4.The main component of stones is ceftriaxone calcium, and a small amount of cholesterol and bilirubin. 5, some cases of gallbladder and kidney stones occur at the same time, not only children, but also adults. Patients are often accompanied by cholecystitis or renal meningitis and other symptoms, especially hyperbilirubinemia. In today’s tense doctor-patient relationship, medicated stones, especially pseudolithiasis due to ceftriaxone, can easily lead to medical disputes. As medical personnel, it is important to continuously improve their clinical diagnosis and treatment skills, and promptly distinguish drug-induced pseudo-stones from other stones. As a patient, you need to improve your overall quality, master more medical health knowledge, and communicate with the medical staff in the process of their own medication and treatment history clearly. As long as doctors and patients trust each other and communicate fully, adverse events can be avoided.