General Information on Gallbladder Disease

Bile is a substance made in the liver and stored in the gallbladder which helps the digestion of fat.
Where is the gallbladder situated?
The gallbladder is situated underside of the liver and releases bile after every meal especially the fatty ones.

Gallbladder disease affects mostly women.

The symptoms are pain of different intensity, jaundice, nausea and fever. Gallbladder disease appears when solid stones are formed in the gallbladder from cholesterol, bile salts and calcium, they are of different sizes-gallstones, they are caused by cholesterol in high quantities which forms crystals.

What are gallstones?

Gallstones appear in people of all ages and the possibility of developing increases with age, obese people, Chrone's disease and ulcerative colitis, people with high cholesterol level in the blood, women that follow contraceptive medication and those with antecents of gallstones are more susceptible to develop gallbladder disease.

Patients may manifest no symptom at all, but when they do is due to chronic cholecystitis (biliary colic) which is a chronic inflammation of the gallbladder manifested with pains in the upper abdomen or in the right side below the ribs, pain which is worse and worse, the pain may spread in the shoulder and sometimes is accompanied by nausea and vomiting. The pain is difficult to be distinguished from other diseases such as: kidney stones, back problems, pneumonia, gastric ulcer, heart pains. The attack is triggered by fatty foods and can last for two to three hours, after it comes to normal.

Acute cholecystitis (acute inflammation or infection of the gall bladder) is a condition manifested with pain and tenderness under the ribs on the right side, temperature lasting more than twelve hours. The pain is getting worse when moving and coughing. There may be gallstones or only the infection. It is treated with antibiotics and in urgent cases emergency surgery is required to remove the gallbladder.

Jaundice (yellow discoloration of the skin and whites of eyes)
Appears when the flow of bile from the liver is obstructed.
Fever and other serious symptoms are suggestive for the infection through the bile duct system. Urine is coloured in dark, the skin and eyes are coloured in yellow and the skin becomes itchy. There may also appear similar symptoms as in cholecystitis.
These symptoms may appear all or only some of them, but at least one will manifest.

Painful attacks are to be treated with painkillers. Keeping a low fat diet and placing something warm on the pain spot are also helpful methods. If you have gallbladder and no symptoms appear then no treatment is required, there are also many alternative treatments which can be applied, if they are not effective surgery is highly recommended.