What is the gallbladder?

 

What is the gallbladder?

Your gallbladder is a small, pear-shaped organ that stores and releases bile. Bile is the fluid your liver produces that helps digest fats in the food you eat.

Your gallbladder is a small, pear-shaped organ that’s tucked below your liver. You probably don’t think much about it -- until it hurts.

Your gallbladder releases a greenish fluid called bile every time you eat to help your body digest fats and vitamins. The bile flows down to your small intestine through tubes called ducts. When something goes wrong with your gallbladder or the bile ducts, the upper right side of your belly may hurt. You may also feel:

• Pain in your back or chest, especially when you take deep breaths
• Feverish
• Like throwing up
• Bloated
• Itchy
• Tired

Where is the gallbladder located?

Your gallbladder is located in the upper right part of your abdomen (belly). It sits just under your liver.

What is the function of the gallbladder?

Your gallbladder is part of your digestive system. Its main function is to store bile. Bile helps your digestive system break down fats. Bile is a mixture of mainly cholesterol, bilirubin and bile salts.

There are several important functions of the gallbladder, which include:

• To store and concentrate bile
• To respond to intestinal hormones (such as cholecystokinin) to empty and refill its bile stores
• To contribute to regulating the composition of bile (the percentage of water, bile salts and more)
• To control the flow of bile into the small intestine
• To contract, secreting bile into the biliary tract and duodenum (the first section of the small intestine)

What are common issues that affect the gallbladder?

Several conditions can cause problems in your gallbladder. The most common condition is gallstones. Gallstones are typically harmless but can sometimes lead to disease states. Gallbladder issues include:

• Gallstones: Gallstones are pebble-like objects made of bile material that develop in the gallbladder or bile ducts. They can be as tiny as grains of sand to as large as golf balls. They’re usually harmless but can cause pain, nausea or inflammation.
• Cholecystitis: Cholecystitis is inflammation of your gallbladder. It can occur when a gallstone blocks bile from exiting your gallbladder. Cholecystitis causes fever and pain and usually requires surgery.
• Gallstone pancreatitis: Gallstone pancreatitis is inflammation of your pancreas. It occurs when a gallstone travels down the common bile duct and blocks the pancreatic duct at a common point just before draining into the small intestine.
• Gallbladder cancer: Gallbladder cancer is rare. You might feel pain in the right upper quadrant of the abdomen. But, it is far more likely for this pain to occur due to another condition.

What are the signs or symptoms of gallbladder problems?

The symptoms of gallbladder problems vary. Some people don’t feel gallstones or even know they have them. But if gallstones block the flow of bile, they can affect your gallbladder or pancreas. You may experience the following symptoms:

• Upper right abdomen pain.
• Upper mid-abdomen pain.
• Upper right abdominal pain radiating to the right shoulder or back.
• Pain after eating a fatty meal.
• Jaundice (yellowing of your skin and whites of your eyes).
• Nausea and vomiting.
• Fever.
• Chills.
• Light-brown pee or light-colored poop.

 

Causes

Gallstones. These are the top reason for gallbladder pain. You get them when bile clumps together into hard masses. Gallstones can be tiny specks or the size of a golf ball. If they get big enough, these stones can block bile from flowing out. That can lead to a gallstone attack, a sudden pain in the upper right part of your belly.

These attacks often happen after a big steak dinner or other fatty meals, and they can last for many hours. But most people who have gallstones don’t know it. These “silent” stones don’t cause problems in your organs. Diagnostic tests like an ultrasound, a magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP), an endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), blood test, or other imaging tests can show if you have gallstones. Your doctor can get rid of them with surgery, medication, or even shockwaves.

Bile duct stones. These are either gallstones that get stuck in your bile ducts or stones that form there. They may give you no trouble until they block the bile ducts. Then you might have serious pain in your belly that comes and goes for hours at a time. Your skin and eyes might turn yellow, and you might feel like throwing up. Your doctor can remove the stones by threading a thin tube with a light at the end called an endoscope through your mouth down to the bile ducts.

 

How are gallbladder issues treated?

Most gallbladder issues are treated with the removal of your gallbladder. Surgery to remove your gallbladder is called a cholecystectomy. Your gallbladder is not an essential organ. This means you can live a normal life without a gallbladder. When a surgeon removes your gallbladder, bile will flow out of your bile ducts directly into your digestive system instead of being stored in your gallbladder first.

Surgeons can perform cholecystectomies three ways:

• Open cholecystectomy: With open surgery, your surgeon operates through one large incision. Your surgeon may perform an open cholecystectomy if your gallbladder is severely inflamed or scarred.
• Laparoscopic cholecystectomy: With laparoscopic surgery, your surgeon operates through a few small incisions. Laparoscopic surgery generally leads to a faster recovery, less pain and smaller scars. In most cases, cholecystectomies will be performed laparoscopically.
• Robotic cholecystectomy: This is a more recent method and is available in a small number of centers.

Surgery may be warranted to remove the gallbladder if the patient has gallstones or the gallbladder is not functioning normally. Most of the time this can be performed either laparoscopically (through small incisions) or with robotic-assisted surgery, both as outpatient procedures.