All side effects from Gallbladder Removal?!
Question:
All side effects from Gallbladder Removal?
Answers:
Aside from the usual post-surgical side-effects such as nausea from the anesthesia, infection potential, etc... the greatest side-effect of having a gall-bladder removed is that you may experience frequent, persistent diarrhea with flatulence. This becomes particularly common in the case of ingesting a fatty or oily meal. The reason this happens is because your bile and bile salts will no longer have a place to pool prior to being released during the digestive process. As the liver makes them, they will immediately pass to the duodenum (part of the intestines) and be carried along there. Bile salts and bile acids are ESSENTIAL for the digestion and up-take of fats from your food.
The liver is not capable of making enough bile salts and bile acids every day to meet the needs of the average American diet. Nature gave us a gall bladder to pool the bile acids and bile salts - which are recollected later on in the digestive process - so that we can build up enough to meet our digestive needs. What all this means is that without the gall bladder, you don't have this large surplus of bile to help digest fats. Without the bile, the fats remain in your chyme (the partially digested glob of stuff you ate) - and eventually make it to the colon. The colon does not respond well to the presence of fatty materials in the chyme, resulting in unusual colon activity, diarrhea, and flatulence.
Some people experience this condition - most do not. It can be controlled with diet, and depending on your liver's function level - you may not see it at all, even without dietary changes.
Gall-bladder removal has other risks as well, though this is the one I am most familiar with. It is not incredibly common, thankfully (I don't have statistics on it for you) - but this condition can be quickly and easily treated by medication. I believe the appropriate medicine, if memory serves, is cholestyramine, to reduce the diarrhea and flatulence associated with this condition - though your doctor will know for sure if this is the appropriate medicine for you.