Patients with gallbladder stones are not uncommon, and it is possible that you or someone in your family or friends has suffered from gallbladder stones. Although common, gallbladder stones can be difficult to diagnose at the onset, and the adverse consequences of untimely or misdiagnosis can be objective. Let’s analyze the causes of gallbladder stones together. I. Why do I have gallbladder stones? Many patients ask, “Why do I have gallbladder stones? It is difficult to answer this question because there are many reasons for gallbladder stones, related to diet, environment, personal physical quality, etc. For example, some diseases such as liver cirrhosis may cause gallbladder stones; gallbladder stones are also related to genetic factors and have a certain degree of familiality; surgery, especially gastrectomy if the vagus nerve is damaged, will also have an impact on gallbladder function; and long time Some studies point out that gallbladder stones are diseases related to aging, and the incidence increases with age, but now more and more young people are also detected with gallbladder stones, which may be related to stressful life or irregular diet. From the above, we can see that there are various causes of gallbladder stones, but patients do not need to dwell on this point, because regardless of the cause of gallbladder stones, there is no big difference in terms of treatment means and treatment effect. If gallbladder stones are suspected, more than 98% of patients can be diagnosed through routine ultrasound. If the stones are small and may be difficult to detect, repeated ultrasounds and careful examination are needed to improve the diagnostic accuracy. For patients with severe disease, a series of tests are needed, including routine blood, urine, liver function, biochemistry, and even MRI to see if the stones are combined with common bile duct stones, and CT to see if they are combined with pancreatitis or tumors. If you suspect that gallbladder stones have entered the bile duct, you can choose to do MRCP (magnetic resonance imaging of the pancreatic bile duct). Secondly, what will be the discomfort when I have gallbladder stones? In fact, gallbladder stones present with a variety of symptoms, and some symptoms are not typical. Usually, if a patient has pain in the upper abdomen, especially in the right upper abdomen or under the glabella, gallbladder stones should be considered. These atypical symptoms often mislead patients (or doctors) to treat it as a heart disease or a stomach disease, and many tests are done without finding the cause. However, in general, there is a certain pattern of pain caused by gallbladder stones: this type of pain is usually induced after eating a fatty meal, and the pain is relatively long and may last more than 20 minutes. In some patients, gallbladder stones are not detected when they are still small, but only when they have grown very large and caused more serious consequences. In some patients, at the beginning of the disease, the stones are relatively small and easily stuck in the neck of the gallbladder and the gallbladder duct. This is because the gallbladder stones continue to grow (medium size) and are not easily stuck in the neck of the gallbladder. When the stones increase in size, they are more likely to cause adverse consequences (see the article “Gallbladder stones that cannot be ignored”). Therefore, if you find a suspected gallbladder discomfort, you should seek medical attention early, so as not to wait until a small disease becomes a big disease, and then the medical treatment will be much worse. Third, the gallbladder stones should not be ignored! Have you noticed? Many gallbladder stone patients, found stones after not treating, but choose to endure, this is really good? The most typical manifestation of gallbladder stones is pain, which may also be accompanied by an increase in body temperature, and in severe cases even cause a drop in blood pressure leading to shock, which is very dangerous. In case of severe pain, it is important to seek medical attention in time because biliary obstruction may have occurred, at this time, pain relief is not enough, the obstruction should be lifted and the inflammatory reaction eliminated as soon as possible. When gallbladder stones cause bile duct obstruction, the white of the patient’s eyes and skin will become yellow (jaundice) and some patients may also have itchy skin. Although it may not seem to be a major problem, this indicates that the patient’s bile duct is blocked and bile stasis has a significant impact on liver function. If gallbladder stones cause obstruction, they can also cause nausea and vomiting and prevent the patient from eating normally; even if there is no obstruction, the stones produce chronic inflammation over time and the patient will have vague pain in the right upper abdomen, which will eventually interfere with eating (especially when the gallbladder contracts after meals causing pain). In addition to the common dangers mentioned above, gallbladder stones may also cause a number of problems. For example, bile duct obstruction caused by stones can increase the pressure in the bile duct and lead to septic cholecystitis. In some patients, gallbladder stones may enter the common bile duct and block the pancreatic duct, causing pancreatitis and cholangitis. In some patients, gallbladder stones may cause internal fistula (a duct between the gallbladder and the colon) between the gallbladder and the colon, causing the stones to drain into the colon. The dangers of gallbladder stones are many and great, the most terrible danger is the occurrence of cancer, although the chance of occurrence is very low, but the consequences are very serious. Generally, large stones are 5 to 10 times more likely to cause cancer than small stones, which is caused by the long-term retention of gallbladder stones in the gallbladder and the constant stimulation of the gallbladder wall with movement. Therefore, if you have gallbladder stones, you should not take it lightly.