During the Chuseok holiday, oily foods such as pollack pancake, fried food, braised short ribs, and japchae filled the tables. You need to be careful, especially if you have recurring indigestion and an upset stomach, you may suspect gallbladder disease.
The gallbladder is an organ that stores and then discharges bile, which helps digest fat. If bile is not discharged properly, abdominal pain or indigestion can occur. Patients who have had gallstones without symptoms, adenomyosis of the gallbladder, or decreased gallbladder discharge often visit the emergency room with sudden pain in the upper right abdomen or epigastric region during the holiday season when they eat a lot of fatty foods.
Professor Kim Na-ru of the Department of Surgery at the Seoul National University Bundang Hospital emphasized, “During the Chuseok holiday, people consume a lot of oily food, so they should be more careful about digestive diseases. When they feel pain or bloating in the upper abdomen or epigastric area, they often think they have indigestion and take digestive medicine. However, if the symptoms persist despite taking the medicine or if severe pain in the upper right abdomen occurs 1-2 hours after eating, there is a high possibility that it is a gallbladder disease, so they should visit a hospital and get diagnosed.”
Gallbladder disease includes cholelithiasis, cholecystitis, adenomyosis, gallbladder polyps, and gallbladder cancer, and its prevalence has been increasing recently due to changes in lifestyle habits such as a Western-style diet, lack of exercise, or excessive dieting. The biggest cause of gallbladder disease is gallstones, which are formed when cholesterol, bile pigments, and bile acids crystallize in the gallbladder.
If you have upper abdominal discomfort, pain in the right upper abdomen or epigastrium, fever, nausea, vomiting, or pain radiating to your right shoulder or shoulder blade, you may have cholecystitis.
Professor Kim explained, “The most common cause of cholecystitis is gallstones. When gallstones block the cystic duct or bile duct, the pressure inside the gallbladder increases and secondary bacterial infection occurs, it progresses to cholecystitis. Also, even if it is not cholecystitis, if there is gallbladder adenomyosis, which is a thickening of the gallbladder wall, the gallbladder contractile function may be reduced. If indigestion or postprandial abdominal pain persists, gallbladder disease should be suspected.”
Among patients who visit the hospital with recurrent indigestion and frequent diarrhea, if tests are performed for stomach or duodenal abnormalities but no specific findings are found, an abdominal ultrasound should be performed to check for problems in the gallbladder such as gallstones or cholecystitis.
What should I do if gallstones, cholecystitis, or gallbladder polyps are found in an abdominal ultrasound?
Professor Kim said, “In cases of gallbladder disease, if symptoms and imaging evidence are clearly confirmed, cholecystectomy is performed in most cases. Except for advanced gallbladder cancer, cholecystectomy is mainly performed using minimally invasive surgery such as laparoscopic or robotic surgery.”
Laparoscopic cholecystectomy is a surgery in which the gallbladder is removed after checking the structures in the abdominal cavity with a camera by making a trocar 1cm below the navel, 5mm below the pubic bone, and 5mm below the right rib. In most cases of acute cholecystitis with severe inflammation, laparoscopic surgery is performed. In cases where the inflammation is not very severe, single-incision robotic surgery can be performed to minimize surgical scars.
Professor Kim said, “If you have symptoms such as recurring indigestion and abdominal pain, it could be gallbladder disease, so do not leave it as it is even if the symptoms have improved, but visit a nearby medical institution even after the Chuseok holiday for examination and diagnosis.” He added, “If a cholecystectomy is necessary, it is recommended to perform a laparoscopic or single-incision robotic cholecystectomy quickly and safely.”
Source: www.nextdaily.co.kr
