What Does My CAT Scan Report Indicate?

Posted on Thu, 21 Dec 2017

Question: I need an opinion... I just had a Cat Scan where they found 3 small hernias in my upper stomach + several small gall stones in my gall bladder.. I have no discomfort, pain or symptons whatsoever from any of these two issues, but the surgeon insists on removing my gall bladder, along with taking care of the hernias, ( the hernias are situated on 2 suture lines from former Colon Cancer Surgery 5 years ago, where they successfully removed part of my colon, after a Stage 1 Polyp was found to have a small amount of Cancer Cells within ). The hernia issues I understand fully need to be successfully treated, but removing my gall bladder does not make sense to me at all--especially as I will have to be on a very stringent fat free diet the rest of my life. I am 71 years old a former Tennis Professional for some 40 + years & in good health, & , in general, watch what I eat, & do not want to have my gall bladder removed at this time with all the side affects that will occur. I have read that many people keep the gall stones in their gall bladder all their lives, & never have any symptons, pain, movement etc., so my feeling is to leave them alone for the time being & address the issue if I have a problem later in life..... So need your advice, please

Answered by Dr. Ramesh Kumar (2 hours later)

Brief Answer:
No living with gallstone keeps you at risk of pancreatitis.

Detailed Answer:
Hello Dear patient,
Thanks for choosing HealthcareMagic for your query.
Have gone through your details and i appreciate your concerns.

See though your stones are asymptomatic but keeping them inside is not a good idea.Gall bladder drains into common bile duct which further opens into pancreas.Some times the stone in gallbladder slips into this duct and reach pancreatic duct.This condition is termed as pancreatitis and severe inflammation in pancreas occurs.Pancreatitis is an acute emergency situaion and can even be fatal in some cases.
Role of gallbladder is to store bile in body however production of bile is strictly under control of liver hence removal of gallbladder has no significant effect on body(Especially as you have a strict control over fat in your diet).

Can you please mention the size of stones?

Take home message-
Living with gallstones(Specially if size is small) is not a good idea.
Laproscopic cholecystectomy can be done to remove that.

Hope i was helpful.
Thanks!

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Nagamani Ng