A cholecystectomy is surgery to take out your gallbladder. This small, pear-shaped organ in the upper right part of your belly stores bile, a fluid your liver makes to digest fat.
After you eat, your gallbladder releases bile through the common bile duct and into your small intestine. But your gallbladder exit duct can get blocked, infected, or inflamed.
When this happens, your gallbladder may not work as well or may stop working. You'll start to feel symptoms after you eat, more so after eating greasy or spicy foods.
Gallstones are the most common issue that blocks your gallbladder and causes problems. These small hard deposits, or stones, form in the gallbladder.
Gallstones are also the most common reason for gallbladder removal. But your doctor may advise a cholecystectomy for other gallbladder problems.
Doctors often find gallstones when you have imaging tests for other health issues. In most cases, they don't cause any symptoms, and you may not need your gallbladder removed.
Changing your diet by eating less fatty, greasy, or spicy foods may help improve your symptoms.
But gallstones don't go away on their own. They can also travel outside your gallbladder and get lodged in other bile ducts, causing problems.
You can live without your gallbladder. Bile can reach your small intestine in other ways.
Removing it is the best way to improve most gallbladder problems.
Complications from gallbladder surgery are rare.
The risks are the same as with any surgery, including:
Gallbladder surgery risks include:
At the Division of Trauma and General Surgery at UPMC, we can remove your gallbladder if:
Before your surgery, your doctor may run tests, such as:
Your doctor will give you written details on how to prep for your gallbladder surgery. Read these carefully at least a week before your surgery.
They'll tell you:
There are two ways to remove a gallbladder.
Your surgeon will advise the best way for you based on factors like your:
For either surgery, you'll receive general anesthesia so you'll be asleep and not feel any pain.
Because gallstones may travel outside your gallbladder, your surgery may include a cholangiogram.
For this test, your surgeon will inject a dye into your common bile duct before taking an x-ray. This helps find wayward gallstones and remove them with a special device.
In most cases, both surgeries take two hours or less. How long it takes depends on whether you have complications.
The most common method for taking out gallbladders is laparoscopic surgery.
During the procedure, your surgeon will:
Your surgeon may need to switch to open gallbladder removal if you have issues during laparoscopic surgery that make it unsafe to continue that way.
If it's unsafe for you to have laparoscopic gallbladder removal, you'll need to have open gallbladder surgery.
During open gallbladder removal, your surgeon will:
Most people have less pain after laparoscopic gallbladder surgery compared to the open method. You can go home when you're able to drink liquids. That may be the same day. You may have to stay overnight if your pain isn’t well controlled, you can’t keep liquids down, or there were problems during surgery.
After open gallbladder surgery, you may need to stay in the hospital for a few days.
Before you go home, your UPMC gallbladder surgery team will give you written guidelines on:
You'll need to follow up with your surgeon in two to three weeks so they can see how you're healing and feeling.
Your recovery time will depend on the type of surgery you had and any issues during surgery.
In most cases:
It's normal to feel some pain and soreness at your incision site or in your upper abdomen. You may also have shoulder pain from the gas used during surgery. This should go away within 48 hours.
For most post-op pain, acetaminophen (Tylenol) or ibuprofen (Advil) can help you feel better. Your doctor may also prescribe narcotic pain medicine.
Your surgeon may ask you not to lift anything heavy for a period of time after surgery to prevent hernias or bulges at the incision sites
Call your doctor if you don't start feeling better as each day goes by, or if you have any of these symptoms:
To make an appointment, contact a location near you. Or call 1-866-629-8077 if you need help.
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