Has anyone had a gall bladder operation to remove gall stones - and what was the outcome ?

Question

Who had a good or bad experience. And here's one for the medical professors - does the body truely not need a gall bladder like the appendix or is that a gross assumption?

Answer 1

I had a laparoscopic cholecystectomy. My gallbladder was surgically removed through only a few tiny incisions, so now I have only four small scars. The largest one was through my belly button and is less than an inch long.

My experience was great. I really wasn't in much pain at all. I didn't take any pain medication other than what they put in my IV just after surgery. The only real pain was some gas got trapped in my shoulder (for laparoscopic surgery, they pump gas into your abdomen to inflate it so they can see everything more easily). That was very painful. But the gas leaves the body by itself within a few days--"just like any other gas leaves the body," according to my doctor. The incisions healed up with no problems at all, and they were so small that I had no stitches, just a type of glue that came off as they healed.

I'm no medical professor, but I did get a degree in biology and I've had my share of anatomy classes. The gallbladder isn't like the appendix, exactly. The appendix has no known function (although some think it's part of the lymphatic system), but the gallbladder does have a function. It serves as a "holding tank" for bile. The liver produces bile, which is used to digest fats, and when you have a gallbladder and eat a very fatty meal, the gallbladder releases extra bile that it has stored to help digest the fat. This is why fatty foods often bring on a gallstone attack--the gallbladder is attempting to release bile, but the stones may be moving or blocking a duct. After you have your gallbladder removed, there will probably be some foods that you have trouble digesting. Often, foods high in fat (deep fried things are a great example) will cause abdominal pain and/or diarrhea in people who don't have a gallbladder because they are less able to digest those things. It will be a trial and error process to find out what you can and can't eat, and some people have more problems than others. I can eat just about anything I want, but my mom (who also had her gallbladder removed) has a lot of things that she can't eat.

Answer 2

Personally I have not experienced a cholecystectomy myself but I have performed them many times.

Firstly, let me reassure you; it is a VERY common surgical procedure with a low incidence of complications and no significant long term sequellae in most people.
These days it is more often than not performed laparoscopically (ie key hole surgery) so the cosmetic result is good.
However, choose your surgeon carefully, always ask about their OWN complication rates.
Everyone having a laparoscopic procedure must be counselled that the risks of needing to convert to an open procedure (and thus causing a bigger scar and slower recovery despite actually speeding up the operation itself) can be as high as 5% (if it is higher you may want to find another surgeon). This can be for anatomical reasons or for life threatening reasons such as control of haemorrhage or bowel perforation.

Despite that, complications are in fact exceptionally rare.
Be sure you are having the operation for the right reasons. Other pathologies can mimic the symptoms of gall stones. Needless to say, if the gall stones are not the cause of your symptoms, surgery will not help.

In general, the indications for surgery are:
Recurrent biliary colic unrelieved by conservative measures (low fat diet), gall-bladder polyps (as histology is required to confirm the likely benign nature of the polyp), cholecystitis or empyema (infection of the gall bladder) or confirmed previous episode of gall stone pancreatitis (high risk of recurrences which can be life threatening).

The gall bladder is simply a store house appended to the biliary tree. Without, the liver will still produce bile from broken down red cells (bile pigments) and metabolised sterols (bile acids) and secrete these via the ducts into the duodenum to help emulsify fats. Theoretically if you eat a large fatty meal after the operation you MAY have a degree of loose fatty stools but otherwise you have no functional requirement for a gall bladder and are unlikely to miss it once its gone.

Like all surgery though, you need to justify the risks of operation with the intended benefit. So get it done for the right reasons, choose a good surgeon (and yes you can get referral for a second opinion if you don't like your own surgeon's cimplication rates) and you will be pleased to be relieved of symptoms.

Get it done for the wrong reasons and you won't be pleased as your symptoms will persist.

You don't need an appendix either. However, the appendix is functionless in humans. The gall bladder is not functionless but it is expendable without significant detriment to the individual of concern.

Hope that helps.

Answer 3

My fiancee had a bad experience....She waited 2 & 1/2 years for the operation (They came out with that old cliche, "You must have slipped through the net!!").........went into hospital, the surgeons started performing the "op" via keyhole surgery, but because she had waited so long for the procedure to be performed, the gall bladder was fused to her liver, so they had to abandon that procedure and open her up. She has a scar from just under her breasts to her groin. Also after the op, they took the morphine syringe driver off her too soon, then she caught MRSA whilst in hospital. Instead of being admitted for 2 days, she was in for 11 days!!!!!!!!!! Bad experience or what?

Answer 4

They removed my gall bladder, I hope I don't need it! The outcome was fine, except I got a hernia near my belly button because I didn't rest enough after the surgery.

Answer 5

The outcome for me was good. I've had no problems since and can eat anything. I've met people that have trouble eating certain foods but that didn't happen to me.
I'm a scientist, not an MD but have worked in hospitals all my life. As far as I know, the jury's still out on what the real need for the gallbladder is. It may be something needed as we mature and then it's not needed when we're grown. As you said, it's one for the MD's out there.

Answer 6

the gallbladder helps disolve the fat in ur food, but the body seems to cope fine without it. The appendix has no apparent function at all except to occasionally annoy medics and patients alike.

Answer 7

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Answer 8

the outcome was gall stones thats why they went in to have them removed they didnt want them imput now did they lol

Answer 9

http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/gallstones/index.htm