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Symptoms of gallbladder problems like biliary colic remains one of the most common presenting complaint of patients coming with upper right abdominal pain. It is also one of the most common laparoscopic surgeries done and of course a good practice for budding surgeons out there. While it remains one of the most common medical condition to affect us, it is also one of the most annoying ones. Understanding symptoms of gallbladder problems such as those caused by gallstones is a very important thing especially for those who don’t know what the cause of their right upper abdominal pain is.
Most gallstones are Cholesterol stones. A smaller proportion of them consists of pigment gallstones. The latter can be either black or brown pigments. Cholesterol stones are mainly made up of yup, you guessed it, Cholesterol. When your liver secretes too much cholesterol, the bile acid and lecithin that the liver also secretes cannot dissolve it, therefore leading to the formation of cholesterol gallstones.
Now that we have a basic understanding about gallstones, let us now find out more about gallbladder symptoms.
The most common symptom of gallstones is biliary colic.
It is described as a sudden onset constant pain. This pain is usually at the centre of the abdomen just beneath the sternum. It can also be just beneath the right lower ribs. It lasts for a short while like 15 minutes or can be even much longer. Sometimes it can be for days. It can be very severe and the pain can sometimes radiate to the back going to the lower part of the shoulder blade. It can make you feel really nauseous and vomiting is not surprising. The entire pain is basically from a blocked duct. When a stone gets dislodged and blocks a certain duct, you will experience biliary colic.
A lot more can be learned from this article here on gallstones. Check it out!
