I was told I had sand stones in my gall bladder.Does anyone know anything about these. It is not gall stones?

Answer 1

Well...perhaps the person that told you there were "sand" stones in your gallbladder was referring more to the size and consistency of the stones, not to the actual content of the stones.

The gallbladder connects the liver to the intestine through small tubes (called bile ducts), and its main purpose is to store and concentrate bile. Bile is produced in the liver, and is sort of a nasty greenish-brown substance that is released from the gallbladder into the intestines when you eat fatty foods. It helps digest and absorb fatty foods and some fat soluble vitamins.

Bile is water-based and contains bile salts, cholesterol, other lipids, and bilirubin.

When the mixture of these things isn't quite right, solids "percipitate" out. These tiny solids that come out of the solution cling and clump together and form hard rock-like formations (stones).

Typically, they are categorized as "Cholesterol" stones (80%) and "Pigment" stones (20%), based on the primary composition of them. (Pigment mostly being calcium salts or bile pigments).

They can range in size from tiny, undetectable specks, to fine granular (sand-like) stones, to huge chunks as big as the gallbladder itself!

Typically, if they are small and like sand, they won't cause any problem at all...and the person would have no symptoms and no problems. However, the "sand" could always clump together to form bigger rocks and then clog up the plumbing, so to speak. This would lead to severe pain, especially after eating a fatty meal.

However, in some patients with small or sand-like stones, it could be a sign that the gallbladder is "dysfunctional". That is, instead of the gallbladder emptying all its contents out, it only pumps out a small fraction of the goop. This is called a "dysfunctional gallbladder"...and the "sand" can become a "sludge". This can cause chronic stomach pain on the upper right part of the abdomen, worse after meals (typically)...but clears up after the gallbladder is surgically removed (cholecystectomy).

Hope this helps...probably more than you wanted!