Your gallbladder is an organ that sits in your abdomen, underneath your liver. Its job is to store bile, a liquid made by the liver. When you eat food containing fat, your gallbladder pushes out bile through the bile ducts and into the small intestine, where it helps digest the fat.
Several diseases can affect the gallbladder or bile ducts, including:
Gallbladder diseases may lead to:
When gallbladder problems continue untreated, you may experience complications such as death of the gallbladder tissue (gangrene), inflammation or damage to your bile ducts (cholangitis), or liver scarring (cirrhosis).
You have a greater risk of gallbladder problems if you are a woman. Additionally, your chance of developing these conditions increases as you get older — many people with gallbladder disease are more than 60 years old.
Additional risk factors include:
You are also more likely to develop gallbladder disease if you have other health conditions like Crohn’s disease, diabetes, sickle cell disease, or liver disease.
Your doctor can identify certain gallbladder issues with blood tests. Additionally, imaging tests such as an ultrasound can help doctors see inside your abdomen to look for swelling, damage, or other problems with this organ.
Pain medications may make it easier to deal with pain caused by gallbladder issues. If your gallbladder is infected, you may need to take antibiotics. Minor issues such as gallstones can be treated by inserting a thin tube with a camera on the end (endoscope) down your throat and into your digestive system.
Often, gallbladder conditions can be treated by removing the gallbladder using a surgical procedure called a cholecystectomy. You may be able to go home the same day that surgery is performed, and recovery tends to be quick.
If your gallbladder is taken out, you will still be able to live a typical life. You can eat a fairly normal diet, although you will want to avoid foods that are very greasy, fried, or high fat. You should aim to eat more vegetables, nuts, whole grains, and other foods that contain a lot of fibre, and limit your meals to contain no more than 30% fat.