Gall Stones

Gall Bladder is a small pouch located on the right upper side of your abdomen just below the liver. Liver produces Bile Juice which assists in the digestion of the food. The bile which is produced in the liver gets stored in the gall bladder. When you eat food, the gall bladder gets squeezed and the bile comes out of the gall bladder to go into the intestine where it helps in the digestion of the fat in your food. When the bile juice becomes highly concentrated then stones are formed. Most of the stones found in the gall bladder are made of cholesterol and the remaining are made of billirubin. Smaller gall stones keep coming out of the gall bladder and reach the intestine through the Common Bile Duct. From the intestine they pass through the body with the stool and thus cause no problems. However these small stones in the gall bladder combine together to make large stones which cannot come out of the gall bladder due to the small opening and thus remain stuck inside. This will cause pain in the upper right side of your abdomen specially when you eat fatty food. You may also feel nausea, vomitting sensation, burping, diarrhea and indigestion. Gall stones are very easily detected on an ultrasound scan which should be done on empty stomach.

Treatment for Gall Stones

If the gall stones are smaller than 10 mm then they can be left inside for them to pass through the CBD and get excreted out of the body on their own. However if the patient is getting severe symptoms or if the gall stones are bigger than 10 mm then surgery is the only solution. It is not possible to get the gall stones out of the gall bladder so the surgeon has to remove the gall bladder itself during the surgery. The surgery is called Cholecystecomy and when the surgery is done through a Laparoscope, it is called Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy.

In Laparoscopic Cholecystecomy, the surgeon will make three small holes less than 1 cm each on the upper right side of your abdomen and finish the surgery through these holes without giving any incision on your skin. The holes are then closed using staplers or surgical glue so no stitches are required. The surgery is normally finished in 30-40 minutes and is one of the easiest surgery for any laparoscopic surgeon. In some cases the gall bladder is stuck to the nearby tissue in a condition called adhesions in which the surgery becomes more complicated and may take longer time to finish.

Best Doctors and Cost

Dr S Ganguly is one of the most qualified and extensively trained General & Laparoscopic Surgeon for doing Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy Surgery at Palaash Hospital. The cost of both the open and the Laparoscopic Cholecystecomy is in the range of Rs. 40,000 - Rs. 50,000 depending upon the room category chosen by you. The hospital stay for Laparoscopic surgery is one to two days while the stay in the case of open surgery is 2-3 days. The recovery time would be 4-5 days in case of Lap surgery while it could be 8-10 days in case of open surgery.

If you have an individual health insurance policy then this surgery is covered after a period of 2 years from the date of inception of the policy. However if you are a beneficiary of company given policy then the surgery is covered from day one. Always go through the terms of your health insurance policy like room rent capping and co-payment to avoid any kind of financial shocks later on.