Gallstones

"Pebbles" within the gallbladder, gallstones are formed by the abnormal composition of bile and/or cholesterol. A pear-shaped sac located under the liver, the gallbladder stores bile secreted by the liver. When the body needs to digest fats, the gallbladder contracts, delivering the bile through the bile ducts into the intestines to help with digestion. Gallstones can block the normal flow of bile if they lodge in any of the ducts that carry bile from the liver to the small intestine. This can cause inflammation in the gallbladder, the ducts, or, rarely, the liver.

There are two types of gallstones, namely cholesterol stones, common in Europe and the United States, and pigment stones, accounting for 90% of gallstones in Asia. Cholesterol stones are usually yellow-green and are made primarily of hardened cholesterol and account for about 80 percent of gallstones. Pigment stones are small, dark stones made of bilirubin, a decomposed form of red blood cells. Gallstones can be as small as a grain of sand or as large as a golf ball. The gallbladder can develop just one large stone, hundreds of tiny stones, or almost any combination of smooth or jagged stones, which cause pain when the gallbladder contracts against them. <Read More>