Have you ever felt a strange aching pain in your upper abdomen?
Some people withgallstonesnever have anysymptoms, while others experience severe pain.
The gallbladders main function is to store bile, a substance secreted by the liver that helps with digestion.
Sometimes bile contents crystallize and form gallstones.
They can block ducts that drain bile in the gallbladder, causing the organ to become inflamed.
But how do you get rid of gallstones?
Surgery in this case, acholecystectomy, or gallbladder removal is the most common form of treatment for gallstones.
Patients with acute cholecystitis are usually hospitalized and receive antibiotics, pain medication, and often surgery.
[Gallbladder surgery] is minimally invasive, so therisk of complicationsis low.
Here are six methods for gallstone removal without surgery:
1.
Thinning Bile With Acid Pills Can Dissolve Gallstones
In some cases, gallstones can be treated with medicine.
These medicines work by thinning the bile, which allows gallstones to dissolve.
Although it is most commonly used to treat kidney stones, it can also be used on gallstones.
As a result, this bang out of treatment is used very sparingly.
Endoscopic drainage mimics the healthy route of bile from the gallbladder to the small intestine.
An endoscopic transpapillary treatment involves accessing the cystic duct with a camera through the mouth and down the throat.
Then a stent, a small tube, is placed through the duct into the gallbladder.
Kumta says that this form of treatment allows the gallbladder to resume normal bile disposal.
Percutaneous cholecystostomy (PC) is typically saved for seriously ill patients who cannot tolerate surgery right away.
Transmural drainage creates a new tract directly through the stomach into the gallbladder, Kumta says.
This allows the gallbladder to decompress.
However, the authors note that only those very skilled in advanced therapeutic endoscopic ultrasound should perform this procedure.
Discuss these treatment options with your doctor and find the one thats right for you.
The Takeaway
Additional reporting by Calley Nelson.
He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and attended medical school at Indiana University.
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