Gallbladder Disease
The gallbladder doesn’t get much attention until it becomes a problem. For a lot of patients in West Texas, that problem shows up after years of ignoring warning signs, or after one bad night that ends in the emergency room.
Here’s what you should know.
What the gallbladder does
The gallbladder is a small organ tucked beneath the liver on the right side of the abdomen. It stores bile, a digestive fluid produced by the liver that helps break down fatty foods. Under normal circumstances, you’d never know it was there. The trouble starts when gallstones form, which is more common than most people realize. Roughly one in five adults has them, though many never develop symptoms.
What symptoms actually feel like
When a gallstone obstructs the outlet of the gallbladder, you feel it. The pain is typically in the upper right abdomen, sometimes radiating to the back or right shoulder blade. It tends to come on after a fatty meal and can last anywhere from thirty minutes to several hours. Some patients describe it as pressure; others call it the worst pain of their life. If it’s happened more than once, the pattern is usually going to continue.
Does it require surgery?
Once the gallbladder becomes symptomatic, the realistic answer is yes. Dietary changes can reduce how often attacks are triggered, but they don’t resolve the underlying problem. There is no medication that reliably eliminates gallstones in most patients. Removal of the gallbladder or cholecystectomy is the definitive treatment.
The good news is that this is one of the most routine operations in general surgery. We perform it robotically and laparoscopically through a few small incisions. Most patients go home the same day and return to normal activity within a week. The body functions fine without a gallbladder, the liver continues producing bile, which simply flows directly into the small intestine rather than being stored first.
What happens without treatment
Untreated gallbladder disease can escalate. A stone that fully obstructs the bile duct can lead to acute cholecystitis, a serious infection requiring urgent surgery. Stones that migrate further can obstruct the pancreatic duct and cause pancreatitis, which often means hospitalization, sometimes intensive care, and a significantly more complicated recovery than an elective procedure would have involved.
The practical takeaway
If you’ve had that upper abdominal pain after eating, especially more than once, it’s worth getting evaluated. An ultrasound is quick, non-invasive, and usually tells us what we need to know. Addressing this on a planned, elective basis is almost always better than waiting for an emergency.