A common condition often misdiagnosed as gastritis
Symptoms :
1.Gastritis/ bloating
2.Upper abdominal pain radiating to the back
3.Intolerance to fatty food
The gall bladder has minimum function in the body and once stones are seen, it means that the GB functioning has stopped.
The complications are :
– Cholecystitis
– Empyaema/Gangrene
– Jaundice & pancreatitis
Surgery is the only treatment available and is best done within 2 to 3 days of onset of symptoms. Delay of surgery would lead to adherence of organs surrounding GB making the surgery very complicated.
Laparoscopic surgery is the treatment of choice and chances of conversion to open surgery are more in the presence of complications.
Do not wait for abdominal pain once diagnosed with gall stones, it means that complications have already begun. Also, diabetics do not feel pain. So if a diabetic patient complains of pain, chances of finding a gangrenous GB are very high intra op.
Presence of jaundice would require an added procedure called ERCP before the surgery.
Here we have a 32yr old female patient with severe abdominal pain and jaundice, needed ERCP followed by surgery. Luckily we were able to complete her surgery laparoscopically and her GB was contracted and packed with more than 100 stones. She had a successful recovery.