Your Gallbladder is a pear-shaped organ under your liver. It stores bile, a fluid made by your liver to digest fat. As your stomach and intestines digest food, your gallbladder releases bile through a tube called the common bile duct. The duct connects your gallbladder and liver to your small intestine.
Your gallbladder is most likely to give you trouble if something blocks the flow of bile through the bile ducts. That is usually a gallstone.
Gallstones form when substances in bile harden. Gallstone attacks usually happen after you eat. Signs of a gallstone attack may include nausea, vomiting, or pain in the abdomen, back, or just under the right arm.
Gallstones are most common among older adults, women, overweight people. The most common treatment is removal of the gallbladder. Fortunately, the gallbladder is an organ that you can live without. Bile has other ways to reach your small intestine.
Using a laparoscope is the most common way to remove the gallbladder. A laparoscope is a thin, lighted tube that lets the doctor see inside your belly. Gallbladder removal surgery is done while you are under general anaesthesia (asleep and pain-free).
1. We make four small cuts in your belly.
2. The laparoscope will be inserted through one of the cuts.
3. Other medical instruments will be inserted through the other cuts.
4. Gas will be pumped into your belly to expand it. This gives the surgeon more space to work.
First, the surgeon cuts the bile duct and blood vessels that lead to the gallbladder. Then the surgeon removes the gallbladder, using the laparoscope.
Sometimes the surgeon cannot safely take out the gallbladder using a laparoscope. In this case, the surgeon will instead do an open cholecystectomy.