What are the symptoms of gallbladder stones?

Gallbladder stones are a type of stone disease whose prevalence increases with age, and the incidence rate in women is higher than in men. The symptoms of gallbladder stones are not all very obvious. Some are even discovered accidentally during physical examinations, but a few will still cause obvious pain such as biliary colic. We need to be aware of the main symptoms and seek timely treatment when discovered. So, what are the symptoms of gallbladder stones?

Most patients are asymptomatic and are only discovered during physical examination, which is called silent gallstones. The typical symptom of gallstones in some patients is biliary colic, which manifests as acute or chronic cholecystitis. The main clinical manifestations are as follows:

1. Biliary colic

Patients often experience colic after a full meal, eating greasy food, or when their body position changes during sleep. Due to gallbladder contraction or stone displacement and vagus nerve excitement, the stone becomes lodged in the ampulla or neck of the gallbladder, obstructing gallbladder emptying, increasing pressure in the gallbladder, and causing strong gallbladder contraction. The pain is located in the right upper abdomen or epigastric region and is paroxysmal, or continuous pain that worsens paroxysmically and may radiate to the right scapula and back, and may be accompanied by nausea and vomiting. Some patients cannot accurately tell where the pain is due to severe pain. After the first onset of biliary colic, about 70% of patients will have a recurrence within one year.

2. Dull pain in the right upper abdomen

Most patients only feel dull pain in the upper abdomen or right upper abdomen, or feel bloating, belching, hiccups, etc. when they eat too much, eat high-fat foods, work under pressure or do not get enough rest, and are easily misdiagnosed as "stomach problems."

3. Gallbladder hyperplasia

When gallstones are impacted or block the cystic duct for a long time but there is no infection, the gallbladder mucosa absorbs the bile pigments in the bile. Secretion of mucous substances, forming gallbladder effusion. The effusion is transparent and colorless and is also called white bile.

4. Others

(1) Some may cause jaundice, but the condition is mild;

(2) Small stones can enter the common bile duct through the cystic duct and become common bile duct stones;

(3) Stones in the common bile duct become lodged in the ampulla through the sphincter of Oddi, causing pancreatitis, which is called biliary pancreatitis.

(4) Gallbladder inflammation and chronic perforation caused by stone compression may cause cholecystoduodenal fistula or cholecystocolonic fistula. Large stones enter the intestine through the fistula and cause intestinal obstruction, which is called gallstone ileus.

(5) Gallstones and long-term inflammatory stimulation can induce gallbladder cancer.

5. Mirizzi syndrome

Mirizzi syndrome is a special type of gallstones. The cystic duct and the common hepatic duct run together for too long or the junction of the cystic duct and the common hepatic duct is too low. The larger cystic duct stones that are continuously incarcerated in the neck of the gallbladder compress the common hepatic duct and cause common hepatic duct stenosis. Repeated inflammatory attacks may lead to gallbladder-common hepatic duct fistula, disappearance of the cystic duct, and partial or complete blockage of the common hepatic duct by stones. The clinical manifestations are recurrent cholecystitis and cholangitis, and obvious obstructive jaundice. Biliary imaging examinations may show enlarged gallbladder, dilated common hepatic duct, and normal common bile duct.