Your gallbladder is located on the right side of your body, below your liver and is small and pear-shaped. Gallstones are hardened deposits of digestive fluid formed in your gallbladder. Gallstones can be incredibly small or become as large as a ball. For gallstone treatment Los Angeles, contact our medical facility.

Symptoms

If you have gallstones, you may experience no symptoms. However, if a gallstone lodges itself in a duct and blocks it, you may feel:

  • Pain between your shoulders
  • Nausea
  • Vomiting
  • Right shoulder pain
  • Sudden, rapid pain in the upper right side of or below your abdomen that gets increasingly more intense
  • Pain that continues for several minutes or a few hours

Causes

Doctors are not 100% clear as to why gallstones form, but it is believed that they result when:

  • There is an excess of cholesterol in your bile. Normal bile has enough chemicals to dissolve cholesterol excreted by your liver but if there is an excess of cholesterol, then it may form crystals that turn into stones.
  • Bilirubin has built up in your bile. There are a few factors that cause your liver to produce too much bilirubin, such as cirrhosis of the liver, some blood disorders, and biliary tract infections.
  • Your gallbladder hasn’t emptied correctly and your bile becomes concentrated, which leads to the formation of gallstones.

Treatment

If you have gallstones that don’t cause any symptoms, then you will likely never need treatment. Your symptoms and test results will determine Gallstone treatment Los Angeles. Your doctor will have you track your symptoms to see if they get worse. If symptoms worsen, treatment is needed and could include:

  • Oral medication – This can be used to help dissolve your gallstones. This method could take months or years and if you discontinue treatment too early, they could form again.
  • Gallbladder removal surgery – This may be necessary if gallstones continually reoccur. Bile will then go directly to your liver and then to your small intestines to prevent the storage of bile in the gallbladder.

If you are experiencing any of the symptoms above, contact our office by calling (213) 386-2511 or schedule an appointment online for gallstone treatment Los Angeles.