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Have Low Gallbladder Ejection Fraction. Diagnosed With Colitis And Gastritis. Should I Go For Surgery?
Question: **Low Ejection Rate Gallbladder***
I have been having stomach issues over the last 2 years with pain only on my left side of my stomach. So end of last year they did a hida scan and they discovered my gall bladder had an 8% ejection rate. On the pathology report they stated the pain I was experiencing was inconsistent with gall bladder pain. I advised my gastro doctor I have never experiencing any gall bladder attack symptoms and never had any issue with pain eating fatty foods. I also stated to him I never had pain on my right side at all. Finally at my pleading the gastro doctor did a colonscopy and endoscopy and the findings were I had left side colitis and gastritis which I suspected the issue was more with my stomach than my gallbladder.
So my question is if I am not having problems with my gall bladder and it has a low ejection rate based on 1 Hida Scan does it have to be removed?
I have been having stomach issues over the last 2 years with pain only on my left side of my stomach. So end of last year they did a hida scan and they discovered my gall bladder had an 8% ejection rate. On the pathology report they stated the pain I was experiencing was inconsistent with gall bladder pain. I advised my gastro doctor I have never experiencing any gall bladder attack symptoms and never had any issue with pain eating fatty foods. I also stated to him I never had pain on my right side at all. Finally at my pleading the gastro doctor did a colonscopy and endoscopy and the findings were I had left side colitis and gastritis which I suspected the issue was more with my stomach than my gallbladder.
So my question is if I am not having problems with my gall bladder and it has a low ejection rate based on 1 Hida Scan does it have to be removed?
Hi XXXXXXX,
My advice is: do not get surgery unless you have symptoms. Removal of the gallbladder is a quite common and "easy" surgery, however you also can have longterm side effects from removing it, most commonly diarrhea and bloating. Therefore usually patients are willing to take the chances of having diarrhea in the future as long as it can get rid of the gallbladder pain, which is apparently not your case. The fact that your doctor found gastritis and colitis would make me favor a trial of medications to treat these (type of medication depending on what the biopsies showed) and see if your symptoms resolve.
The fact that you have such a low gallbladder ejection fraction, usually called gallbladder "dyskinesia", will make you prone to have gastrointestinal symptoms, such as abdominal pain after eating a meal, particularly a fat containing meal. If you ever have recurrent abdominal pain, in the right upper side then this is consistent with gallbladder dyskinesia, and a surgery would likely help.
Hope that helped.
My advice is: do not get surgery unless you have symptoms. Removal of the gallbladder is a quite common and "easy" surgery, however you also can have longterm side effects from removing it, most commonly diarrhea and bloating. Therefore usually patients are willing to take the chances of having diarrhea in the future as long as it can get rid of the gallbladder pain, which is apparently not your case. The fact that your doctor found gastritis and colitis would make me favor a trial of medications to treat these (type of medication depending on what the biopsies showed) and see if your symptoms resolve.
The fact that you have such a low gallbladder ejection fraction, usually called gallbladder "dyskinesia", will make you prone to have gastrointestinal symptoms, such as abdominal pain after eating a meal, particularly a fat containing meal. If you ever have recurrent abdominal pain, in the right upper side then this is consistent with gallbladder dyskinesia, and a surgery would likely help.
Hope that helped.
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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