Gallstones: Causes, Attacks and Treatment

Your gallbladder is a pear-shaped organ under your liver. It stores bile, a fluid the liver makes to digest fat. As your stomach and intestines digest food, the gallbladder releases bile through the common bile duct, the tube linking the gallbladder and liver to the small intestine.

What goes wrong

The gallbladder most often causes trouble when something blocks bile flowing through the ducts — usually a gallstone. Gallstones form when substances in bile harden.

Attacks

Gallstone attacks usually come after eating. Signs can include:

• nausea;
• vomiting;
• pain in the abdomen, the back, or just under the right arm.

Who gets them

Gallstones are most common among:

• older adults;
• women;
• people who are overweight;
• Native Americans and Mexican Americans.

Diagnosis and treatment

Gallstones are often found by chance during imaging tests for other conditions. If they cause no symptoms, they usually need no treatment. The most common treatment is removing the gallbladder — and you can live without one, because bile has other ways to reach the small intestine.

Sources

• MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine, "Gallstones," drawing on the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIH). https://medlineplus.gov/gallstones.html
• Rewritten in hubnx's own words.