Gallbladder

It can be said that the gallbladder is a small "sac" located under the liver, adhered to it and communicated with the main bile duct (conduit that carries bile produced in the liver to the intestine that facilitates the digestion of food). Its main function is to store bile and release it into the intestine (duodenum) at the appropriate time after the ingestion of food.

Like any organ in our body, the gallbladder can suffer from problems of functioning (dyskinesia), formation (absence, partitions ...), content (stones in the gallbladder or lithiasis, vesicular polyps ...) or alterations in its wall (tumors ...)

We will focus on the most common problem of the gall bladder, which is none other than the so-called cholelithiasis (gallstones). This disease is of multifactorial origin: race, age, climate, sex, diet ... and its clinical translation is biliary colic, sometimes presenting sometimes urgent clinical symptoms due to complications. Some of the main symptoms are: acute cholecystitis or infection of the same and pancreatitis or inflammation of the pancreas, both entities should be considered serious initially.

When the gallbladder causes discomfort or has already manifested with some of the complications previously mentioned, its treatment is surgical removal.. Currently, except in special circumstances, this operation is performed by laparoscopic approach, that is, without opening the abdomen and only practicing three or four small incisions of 0.5 to 1.5cm. The excision technique is the same as when the abdomen is opened (that is why we speak of a different approach), but with instruments adapted for this pathway.. This method allows: the early reintroduction of oral feeding, greater comfort of the patient, a lower rate of wound complications, a reduction in the time required for hospitalization and the ability to resume a normal life almost immediately. For all these advantages, the approach of choice is currently considered.