OUR TREATMENTS
Gall Bladder Stones
Treatment for gall stones consists of diagnosis and removal of stones that are blocking the bile duct system. Removal of stones by surgery is called a cholecystectomy and involves removing the gall bladder and the duct that joins the gall bladder to the rest of the bile duct system (cystic duct). Gall bladder surgery can be done 2 ways, firstly all surgery will be attempted using the keyhole approach where four very small incisions are made in the abdomen and the surgeon uses devices to look at, deflate and remove the gall bladder through these 1-2cm holes. No stitches are usually required and recovery is quick with a normal hospital stay of 24 hours. However not all gall bladders can be removed this way and a number of them will need to be removed using a larger single incision and conventional removal called open cholecystectomy. It is estimated that about 1 in 20 will need to be done using this technique. Open Cholecystectomy requires a slightly longer hospital stay, typically 2-3 days and there will be clips in the wound site that will need to be removed. On average over 500,000 of these operations are carried out yearly in the USA alone and it is therefore a common and relatively safe procedure.
If surgery is not an option and a stone has become lodged in the common bile duct there are some instances where it can be removed by a Physician who can perform a procedure called an ERCP. This is a test that involves a scope being passed through the mouth and down into the gullet. It is a long scope that stretches down past the stomach and into the first part of the bowel called the duodenum. In this section the bile ducts enter the bowel through an area called the sphincter of Oddi and the scope uses this sphincter to go into the biliary system and if possible remove the stone and make the opening to the bowel larger (a sphincterotomy), so that stones can fall into the bowel without causing obstruction in the future. This is done under local anaesthetic and takes no more than half an hour.
If you have symptoms of gall stones and require an appointment with one of our surgeons then please contact us via the numbers given on our contacts page.