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Gallstones · Chronic gallbladder disease · 47 slides

Gallstones and chronic gallbladder disease.

How stones form, why they hurt, and which ones need an operation: from biliary pain and chronic inflammation to Mirizzi syndrome and gallstone ileus.

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Contents · 8 parts

Introduction

Slide 1: Gallstones and chronic gallbladder disease
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Gallstones and chronic gallbladder disease

HEPATOBILIARY SURGERY · LECTURE 3

Gallstones and chronic gallbladder disease

How stones form, why they hurt, and which ones need an operation.

Dr Prateek Gupta

Assistant Professor, Department of General Surgery Dayanand Medical College & Hospital, Ludhiana prateekguptasurgery.com

Slide 2: Two patients with gallstones
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Two patients with gallstones

TWO PATIENTS IN THE SURGICAL OUTPATIENT CLINIC

A. A 42-year-old woman

Attacks of severe, steady pain in the upper abdomen, going through to the back. Each lasts a few hours, often wakes her at night, and comes with vomiting. She is well between attacks. Ultrasound shows gallstones.

B. A 78-year-old woman

Three days of colicky abdominal pain, vomiting and a distended abdomen.

Questions to keep in mind

1

Is A's pain biliary pain?

2

Does A need an operation? Her sister's stones were found by chance and have never hurt: does she?

3

How can a gallstone block B's bowel?

4

What will B's imaging show?

Illustrative cases, not real patients. We return to them at the end.

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Gallstone formation

Slide 3: Stones
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Stones

PART 1

How common they are, the three kinds, how they form, and who gets them.

An opened gallbladder full of stones

Photograph: Alex Khimich, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

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Slide 4: 10⁠–⁠15%
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10⁠–⁠15%

HOW COMMON

Gallstones are common

of the population in western societies have gallstones.

17%

of people in the UK have gallstones at the time of death.

More common in Native American and Latin American people.

India? None of the three books gives a figure.

Stones from one patient, on a millimetre grid

Photograph: George Chernilevsky, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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Slide 5: Three kinds of stone
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Three kinds of stone

TYPES

A drawing, not to scale.

Cholesterol or mixed: 50⁠–⁠99% cholesterol.

Pigment: black or brown; under 30% cholesterol.

Pure cholesterol stones are under 10% of all stones.

USA and Europe: 80% are cholesterol or mixed stones. Parts of Asia: 80% are pigment stones.

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Slide 6: Cholesterol stones start in supersaturated bile
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Cholesterol stones start in supersaturated bile

HOW CHOLESTEROL STONES FORM

A schematic, not to scale.

1

Supersaturation. Cholesterol stays in solution only with enough bile salts and phospholipid (lecithin). Too much cholesterol secreted is almost always the cause.

2

Nucleation. Cholesterol crystals form from unstable vesicles: “a crucial step”. Mucus and glycoprotein help them form.

3

Growth. Abnormal gallbladder emptying “may aid” the crystals to gather into stones.

Sabiston's four factors: supersaturation, concentration in the gallbladder, nucleation, and poor emptying.

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Slide 7: Black and brown pigment stones differ
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Black and brown pigment stones differ

PIGMENT STONES

Black pigment stones: small, dark and spiculated

Photograph: Miya.m, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Black

Made of a bilirubin pigment polymer with calcium phosphate and calcium bicarbonate.

Linked with haemolysis, as in hereditary spherocytosis and sickle cell disease; and cirrhosis.

Where: almost always in the gallbladder.

X-ray: often radio-opaque.

Brown

Made of calcium bilirubinate, calcium palmitate and stearate, and cholesterol.

Linked with stasis and infection: bacterial β-glucuronidase deconjugates bilirubin; stents, Clonorchis sinensis and Ascaris lumbricoides.

Where: more common in the ducts, but may form in the gallbladder; typical of Asian populations.

Any child with gallstones should be investigated for hereditary spherocytosis.

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Slide 8: Risk factors for gallstones
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Risk factors for gallstones

WHO GETS THEM

Who

Age. Women three times as often as men; first-degree relatives twice as often.

Body and diet

Obesity and a high-calorie diet raise cholesterol secretion. Rapid weight loss and bariatric surgery.

Hormones

Oral contraceptives. Pregnancy: progesterone slows gallbladder emptying.

The gut

Disease or removal of the terminal ileum shrinks the bile acid pool: about 95% of bile salts normally return from there. Home parenteral nutrition; prolonged fasting.

Operations and drugs

Truncal vagotomy. Somatostatin analogues.

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Biliary pain and investigation

Slide 9: Biliary pain
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Biliary pain

PART 2

Why a stone hurts, what the pain is like, and what it is not.

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Slide 10: A stone at the outlet makes the gallbladder hurt
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A stone at the outlet makes the gallbladder hurt

WHY IT HURTS

The block. A stone impacts in the gallbladder neck or the cystic duct.

The squeeze. After food, cholecystokinin (CCK) contracts the gallbladder, against the stone.

The end of the attack. Usually the stone slips back into the body of the gallbladder.

So biliary pain is the gallbladder contracting against a stone at its outlet.

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Slide 11: Biliary pain is usually steady, not colicky
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Biliary pain is usually steady, not colicky

WHAT IT FEELS LIKE

The pattern (Bailey & Love)

Where: right upper quadrant or epigastrium; may go through to the back.

What: it may be called colicky, but is more often dull, continuous and severe.

How long: several minutes to hours.

When: it often starts at night and wakes the patient.

With: nausea and vomiting.

Where the books differ

Bailey & Love, chapter 63: colicky, to the angle of the scapula, peaking in about half an hour.

Sabiston: “colic” is a misnomer; the pain lasts a few hours.

Schwartz: it lasts 1 to 5 hours.

Only about half of patients link it with food. Fever is not part of it: fever marks acute cholecystitis.

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Slide 12: Longer pain or fever means more than colic
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Longer pain or fever means more than colic

WHEN TO THINK AGAIN

Pain for more than 24 hours

Suggests acute cholecystitis, or a stone impacted in the cystic duct.

Fever with local signs

Fever marks acute cholecystitis. Its local signs: Murphy's sign, and right upper quadrant pain, tenderness or a mass.

Murphy's sign

Palpating under the right costal margin, the tenderness increases on breathing in, and the patient stops breathing in.

What do you find in a simple attack? Mild right upper quadrant tenderness may be present (Schwartz); there is no reproducible finding (Sabiston). Between attacks, the examination is usually normal.

Acute cholecystitis is taught in Lecture 4.

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Slide 13: About 90%
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About 90%

NOT EVERY SYMPTOM IS FROM THE STONES

Dyspepsia and flatulence? Only a questionable link

Dyspepsia, flatulence, food intolerance (particularly to fats) and a change in bowel habit have a questionable relation to gallstones.

Atypical symptoms are less often relieved by cholecystectomy than typical ones.

When the operation fails, it is mostly because the earlier symptoms continue.

with typical symptoms are relieved.

Up to 15%

are not relieved by the operation.

The more typical the pain, the better the result.

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Slide 14: Rule out other causes of atypical pain
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Rule out other causes of atypical pain

OTHER CAUSES

The gut

Peptic ulcer

Reflux

Pancreatitis

Liver disease

Inflammatory bowel disease

Diverticular disease

The abdominal wall and skin

Abdominal wall hernia

Herpes zoster

The urinary tract

Renal calculi

The chest

Pleuritic pain

Cardiac pain

Atypical biliary-type pain? Think of these before blaming the stones. Acute cholecystitis has its own list, in Lecture 4.

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Slide 15: Ultrasound confirms the stones
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Ultrasound confirms the stones

INVESTIGATION

Ultrasound: Mikael Häggström, M.D., CC0, via Wikimedia Commons; the author's labels.

First test. Ultrasound through the abdominal wall: accurate, available, cheap and quick, but operator dependent and limited by body fat and bowel gas.

A stone is an echogenic focus that casts an acoustic shadow and moves with position, unless impacted.

Accuracy: sensitivity and specificity over 90%.

A polyp does not move and casts no shadow; a calcified polyp may shadow.

Other tests. A plain X-ray shows only 10% of stones, and computed tomography (CT) 75%. Blood tests are usually normal in uncomplicated stones.

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Slide 16: Sludge with typical attacks fits biliary colic
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Sludge with typical attacks fits biliary colic

SLUDGE

Ultrasound: Nevit Dilmen, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; the author's label.

On ultrasound, sludge moves slowly and lacks the sharp echoes of stones.

With typical attacks, sludge is consistent with biliary colic, and cholecystectomy is warranted.

A hidden cause. Microlithiasis can lie behind repeated “idiopathic” pancreatitis (Lecture 5).

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Slide 17: Look for a stone in the bile duct too
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Look for a stone in the bile duct too

INVESTIGATION

Gallstones on ultrasound

Jaundice with deranged liver tests?

Magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP)

If there is jaundice with deranged liver tests, MRCP is done to exclude duct stones.

Normal liver tests do not exclude one: they are normal in about a third of patients with duct stones.

Duct stones, cholangitis and who needs which test: Lecture 5.

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Natural history and treatment

Slide 18: Who needs an operation?
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Who needs an operation?

PART 3

Most stones stay silent. Treat symptoms, and know the exceptions.

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Slide 19: Most gallstones never cause symptoms
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Most gallstones never cause symptoms

NATURAL HISTORY

Silent stones that become painful (Bailey & Love)

Years 1⁠–⁠5

2% a year

Years 6⁠–⁠10

1% a year

Years 11⁠–⁠15

0.5% a year

Over 20 years, only 18% had biliary pain.

Bailey & Love: more than 80% of gallstones are asymptomatic; about 1⁠–⁠2% a year develop symptoms needing surgery.

Sabiston: 20⁠–⁠30% develop symptoms within 20 years.

Schwartz: 2⁠–⁠3% a year.

Complication first? Few patients have one without earlier biliary symptoms (Schwartz); about 1% (Sabiston).

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Slide 20: What gallstones can do
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What gallstones can do

COMPLICATIONS

1 In the gallbladder

Biliary colic; acute and chronic cholecystitis; empyema; mucocele; perforation.

2 In the bile duct

Obstruction with jaundice; acute cholangitis; acute pancreatitis (Lecture 5).

3 Into the gut

Fistula; gallstone ileus (this lecture).

Gallbladder cancer: linked with stones; Bailey & Love calls it “a suggested association” (Lecture 9).

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Slide 21: Silent stones? Leave them, with named exceptions
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Silent stones? Leave them, with named exceptions

SILENT STONES

Asymptomatic gallstones do not need intervention. Stones found by chance on CT or plain films are left in place.

Prophylactic cholecystectomy “may be performed” for (Bailey & Love):

Stones and gallbladder

Large stones, over 3 cm (Sabiston: over 2.5 cm).

Stones in the bile duct as well.

Polyps over 1 cm.

Porcelain gallbladder: calcification of the wall.

The patient

Chronic haemolysis: sickle cell disease, hereditary spherocytosis.

Transplant patients, during transplantation.

Bariatric surgery.

Cancer risk

Suspicion or risk of cancer, as with anomalous pancreatic duct drainage.

Groups or areas with much gallbladder cancer, parts of northern India among them.

Also: Sabiston lowers the threshold in diabetics; Schwartz adds people cut off from medical care for long periods.

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Slide 22: Symptomatic stones: cholecystectomy
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Symptomatic stones: cholecystectomy

SYMPTOMATIC STONES

Gallstones with biliary pain

Cholecystectomy: laparoscopic for most patients

Treatment of choice for symptomatic gallstones, if there is no medical contraindication (Bailey & Love).

Sabiston adds: with mild symptoms (complications 1⁠–⁠3% a year), observation with diet and lifestyle change is appropriate; severe or recurrent symptoms (7% a year) warrant elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

While waiting, the patient avoids fatty food and large meals.

How the operation is done: Lecture 6.

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Slide 23: Why stones are not dissolved
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Why stones are not dissolved

WITHOUT AN OPERATION

Recurrence

Removing the stones and leaving the gallbladder will inevitably lead to gallstone recurrence.

Dissolving or breaking

Medical treatment is generally unsuccessful: oral bile salts, contact dissolution and shock-wave lithotripsy. Stones recur in up to 50% after dissolution and about 20% after lithotripsy. Kept for patients who cannot safely have a general anaesthetic.

In the long term

The results are disappointing; it is not part of the primary treatment.

Leave the gallbladder, and the stones come back.

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Chronic cholecystitis and mucocele

Slide 24: Chronic gallbladder disease
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Chronic gallbladder disease

PART 4

Repeated attacks scar the gallbladder; a blocked one can fill with mucus.

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Slide 25: Repeated attacks scar the gallbladder
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Repeated attacks scar the gallbladder

CHRONIC CHOLECYSTITIS

Normal

Chronic cholecystitis

Where it ends: repeated attacks may end in a contracted, non-functioning gallbladder.

Why: brief blocks of the cystic duct inflame and scar the neck and the duct; this fibrosis is chronic cholecystitis.

How often, and how far: if untreated, about two-thirds of patients with symptoms develop it. The changes range from minor mucosal inflammation to a shrunken, non-functioning gallbladder with fibrosis through the whole wall; the lining pushes into the muscle coat as Rokitansky⁠–⁠Aschoff sinuses.

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Slide 26: Chronic cholecystitis looks like biliary colic
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Chronic cholecystitis looks like biliary colic

CHRONIC CHOLECYSTITIS

Opened specimen: a thick wall, and stones

Specimen: علاء, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The picture is that of biliary colic. The diagnosis rests on typical symptoms and stones on imaging.

Treatment: cholecystectomy, which cures more than 90%.

On imaging, a thick wall (over 4⁠–⁠5 mm) and a contracted gallbladder predict a difficult cholecystectomy.

Beware: a localised cancer can be hard to tell from chronic cholecystitis (Lecture 9). Xanthogranulomatous cholecystitis can closely mimic cancer, so frozen section is advised.

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Slide 27: A blocked, uninfected gallbladder fills with mucus
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A blocked, uninfected gallbladder fills with mucus

MUCOCELE

Museum specimen: mucocele due to stones (its label)

Specimen: Denis Desaulniers et Bernard Têtu, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Cause: a stone completely blocks the cystic duct of an otherwise healthy gallbladder. Bile salts are reabsorbed, and the lining secretes uninfected mucus.

Also called hydrops, with “white bile”. It may be palpable but is usually not tender. It may lead to inflammation, infection and perforation, so early cholecystectomy.

Torsion occurs most often in an older patient with a mucocele.

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Mirizzi fistula and ileus

Slide 28: Compression, fistula and obstruction
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Compression, fistula and obstruction

PART 5

A stone can press on the bile duct, erode into the gut, and block the bowel.

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Slide 29: Mirizzi syndrome: a stone presses on the bile duct
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Mirizzi syndrome: a stone presses on the bile duct

MIRIZZI SYNDROME

The syndrome: a large stone in Hartmann's pouch or the cystic duct compresses the bile duct beside it. Often the cystic duct runs parallel to the common hepatic duct (Lecture 1).

Jaundice: obstructive and severe.

Which duct? Bailey & Love's 28th edition names the common bile duct; its 27th edition, Sabiston and Schwartz name the common hepatic duct.

Inflammation can open a fistula between the gallbladder and the bile duct (cholecystocholedochal fistula), which may not be apparent.

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Slide 30: Csendes types of Mirizzi syndrome
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Csendes types of Mirizzi syndrome

MIRIZZI SYNDROME: TYPES

Each drawing is a cross-section: the pouch and its stone (left), the bile duct (right).

Type I (11%)

External compression of the common bile duct.

Type II (41%)

A fistula eroding under one-third of the duct's circumference.

Type III (44%)

The fistula involves up to two-thirds of the circumference.

Type IV (4%)

Complete destruction of the bile duct.

Csendes and colleagues, 1989: 219 of 17,395 patients operated on for benign biliary disease had one of these types (its share in brackets). Operative mortality and postoperative morbidity rose with the severity.

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Slide 31: Mirizzi syndrome is a trap at operation
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Mirizzi syndrome is a trap at operation

MIRIZZI SYNDROME AT OPERATION

Why it is a trap

A red flag for a difficult cholecystectomy, and an imaging predictor of one.

The main danger: damage to the bile duct.

Dissecting out the cystic duct completely only injures the common hepatic or common bile duct.

What the books do

Bailey & Love, 27th edition: open the infundibulum, remove the stone, and oversew it.

Sabiston: cholecystectomy, which may need repair of the common duct; a large fistula may need a choledochojejunostomy.

In any difficult cholecystectomy, Bailey & Love's bail-out is a subtotal cholecystectomy.

How these operations are done: Lecture 6.

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Slide 32: A stone can erode into the gut
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A stone can erode into the gut

FISTULA

Erosion. A large stone may erode the gallbladder wall into the duodenum or the colon, often after an attack of acute cholecystitis.

Air in the biliary tree follows. It is also seen after an endoscopic sphincterotomy or a surgical anastomosis.

Air in the bile ducts of the liver on CT (arrow). The cause is not given with this image.

CT: James Heilman, MD, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; the author's arrow.

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Slide 33: Gallstone ileus: a stone blocks the bowel
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Gallstone ileus: a stone blocks the bowel

GALLSTONE ILEUS

How often: an infrequent complication of gallstones (0.4%), more often in older people and women.

Which stones: most small stones pass; stones of 2⁠–⁠5 cm impact.

Where: usually the terminal ileum or ileocaecal valve: the lumen is relatively narrow and peristalsis less active. Less often a stone in the pylorus or proximal duodenum blocks the gastric outlet (Bouveret's syndrome).

“Ileus” is a misnomer: the block is mechanical. It may come and go as the stone moves, and absolute constipation may be absent.

Patient B: the pain comes and goes.

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Slide 34: Rigler's triad: three signs of gallstone ileus
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Rigler's triad: three signs of gallstone ileus

GALLSTONE ILEUS: IMAGING

1 Dilated small bowel above the stone (circle): CT

2 Gas in the biliary tree (arrow): CT

3 A ring-calcified stone out of place (circle): X-ray

CT and X-ray: Hellerhoff, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; cropped from two figures, with the author's arrow and circles, two rings redrawn.

The triad, on a plain film: intestinal obstruction; gas or contrast in the biliary tree; an aberrant rim-calcified or totally calcified stone.

Two of the three are seen in 40⁠–⁠50%.

CT is better than plain films or ultrasound: sensitivity up to 93%.

A stone that moves between serial films: the “tumbling sign”.

In patient B, imaging shows all three.

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Slide 35: Remove the stone; the fistula can usually wait
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Remove the stone; the fistula can usually wait

GALLSTONE ILEUS: TREATMENT

Signs of ischaemia at the impaction site may mandate resection.

Laparoscopic or open; a very proximal stone can be retrieved endoscopically.

1

Manage the obstruction, then enterolithotomy: move the stone back to healthy bowel and remove it through a longitudinal incision on the antimesenteric border.

2

Look for more stones: a faceted stone means a search for others; about 10% have several.

What to do with the fistula?

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Bailey & Love, ch. 71Resect it only if the patient is stable and stones remain.
Bailey & Love, ch. 78Do not explore the gallbladder region.
SabistonOne-stage repair, generally, in healthy patients without severe inflammation; enterotomy alone in those with multiple comorbidities.
Schwartz“A topic of debate”.

Other gallbladder conditions

Slide 36: Other gallbladder conditions
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Other gallbladder conditions

PART 6

Cholesterolosis, adenomyomatosis, porcelain gallbladder, polyps, typhoid, and the link with cancer.

Cholesterolosis: yellow lipid on the gallbladder lining, close up

Photograph: Ed Uthman, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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Slide 37: Cholesterolosis and adenomyomatosis
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Cholesterolosis and adenomyomatosis

THE CHOLECYSTOSES

Cholesterolosis

Yellow lipid flecks on the lining

Photograph: Ed Uthman, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Lipid in the lining: tiny nodules in two-thirds; polypoid in a third.

Yellow deposits on a reddened lining: the “strawberry gallbladder”; it may go with cholesterol stones.

The lipid sits in macrophages of the lamina propria. If it causes symptoms: cholecystectomy.

Adenomyomatosis

Lining pushed into the muscle coat (a Rokitansky⁠–⁠Aschoff sinus); also seen in chronic cholecystitis (slide 25)

Micrograph: Ed Uthman, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Overgrowth of the lining and a thickened muscle wall, with diverticula within the wall.

A focal form commonly occurs in the fundus.

Generally not considered premalignant, but clearly associated with gallstones. If symptomatic: cholecystectomy.

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Slide 38: Porcelain gallbladder: a calcified wall
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Porcelain gallbladder: a calcified wall

PORCELAIN GALLBLADDER

CT and X-ray: Hellerhoff, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

What: calcification of the gallbladder wall, presumably from chronic inflammation; rare. The calcified rim shows on CT and on the plain film (bottom left).

Cancer risk: “a small increased risk” (Bailey & Love); under 10% (Sabiston); about 10% (Schwartz).

Ultrasound: a curved echogenic line along the whole wall, with a shadow.

Remove it? Schwartz calls it an absolute indication for cholecystectomy, then says observation is now acceptable. Sabiston: “should consider”. Bailey & Love: it “may be performed”.

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Slide 39: Gallbladder polyps: size and risk features decide
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Gallbladder polyps: size and risk features decide

GALLBLADDER POLYPS

A polyp on ultrasound (arrow)

Cholesterol polyps in an opened gallbladder

Ultrasound (left): James Heilman, MD, CC BY-SA 4.0, the author's arrow. Specimen (right): Ed Uthman, CC BY 2.0. Both via Wikimedia Commons.

On ultrasound: a lump on the wall that does not move and casts no shadow; a calcified polyp may shadow.

Usually benign (cholesterol polyps, adenomyomas, inflammatory polyps, adenomas), but some are malignant; most stay stable.

Cholecystectomy for: polyps over 10 mm; sessile polyps with a wall over 4 mm; patients over 50; or with gallstones, primary sclerosing cholangitis, biliary colic or pancreatitis. Smaller polyps: observe, and remove if they grow.

Over 10 mm, a 25% risk of malignancy. True polyps are only 5% of polypoid lesions.

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Slide 40: Typhoid can make the gallbladder a carrier
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Typhoid can make the gallbladder a carrier

TYPHOID

Salmonella Typhi under the microscope

Micrograph: United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; cropped to its round field.

Infection: Salmonella Typhi or Salmonella Typhimurium can infect the gallbladder; acute or, more often, chronic cholecystitis follows.

Carriers: the patient excretes the bacteria in the bile. The gallbladder cancer risk is significantly higher in typhoid carriers.

Stones: gallstones may be present; whether they follow the infection or predispose to it is “debatable”.

Treatment: ampicillin and cholecystectomy; a quinolone if the patient is allergic to penicillin.

In theatre: do not give patients their stones if typhoid is suspected.

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Slide 41: The books differ on how strong the cancer link is
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The books differ on how strong the cancer link is

GALLSTONES AND CANCER

Gallbladder cancer is taught in Lecture 9.

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BookHow strongFigures
Bailey & Love“A suggested association”, implying a role for chronic inflammationIn parts of northern India, gallbladder cancer is as much as 9% of all biliary tract disease.
SabistonGallstones are the primary risk factorOver 80% of patients with gallbladder cancer have stones; cancer is about seven times more common with stones. Highest in women from India and Pakistan.
SchwartzGallstones are the most important risk factorUp to 85% have stones, but under 3% of patients with stones have gallbladder cancer.
Slide 42: Gallbladder disease can occur without stones
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Gallbladder disease can occur without stones

WITHOUT STONES

Inflammation without stones

Acute and chronic inflammation can occur without stones and look like stone disease. Some cases are non-specific inflammation; others are one of the cholecystoses.

Biliary dyskinesia

A low gallbladder ejection fraction on a HIDA scan (cholescintigraphy, Lecture 2) may suggest it, but reading the scan for it is controversial, and the cut-offs vary.

Acute acalculous cholecystitis

Taught with acute cholecystitis in Lecture 4.

Know them by name; the detail is beyond this lecture.

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Slide 43: Biliary pain, and a stone in the ileum
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Biliary pain, and a stone in the ileum

BACK TO THE TWO PATIENTS

A. The 42-year-old woman

Her pain is biliary pain: steady, severe, hours long, at night, through to the back, with vomiting.

Treatment: cholecystectomy is the treatment of choice, if there is no medical contraindication; laparoscopic for most (Lecture 6).

Her sister: silent stones are left alone, unless one of the named exceptions applies.

B. The 78-year-old woman

Diagnosis: gallstone ileus: a stone passed through a fistula into the gut and stuck, usually in the terminal ileum.

Her imaging: Rigler's triad: obstruction, gas in the biliary tree, a calcified stone out of place.

Treatment: manage the obstruction; enterolithotomy; look for more stones. The fistula is usually left at the first operation.

Illustrative cases, not real patients.

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Slide 44: Gallstones in seven steps
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Gallstones in seven steps

A VIVA ANSWER

1

Types and formation. Cholesterol, mixed and pigment (black, brown). Cholesterol stones: supersaturation, then nucleation; poor emptying may aid their growth.

2

Risk factors. Age, female sex, family, obesity, rapid weight loss, pregnancy, loss of the terminal ileum, haemolysis.

3

Natural history. Most stay silent; about 1⁠–⁠2% a year develop symptoms needing surgery (Bailey & Love).

4

Clinical features. Biliary pain: steady, epigastric or right upper quadrant, to the back, for hours, with vomiting.

5

Investigation. Ultrasound: an echogenic focus with an acoustic shadow that moves unless impacted; normal liver tests do not exclude duct stones.

6

Complications, by site: the gallbladder, the bile duct, the gut.

7

Treatment. Symptomatic stones: cholecystectomy, if there is no medical contraindication. Silent stones: leave them, except in the named groups.

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Slide 45: What to carry out of this lecture
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What to carry out of this lecture

TAKE-HOME

1

Cholesterol, mixed or pigment. Cholesterol stones start in supersaturated bile.

2

Biliary pain comes from the outlet. Steady, for hours; fever means more than colic.

3

Most stones stay silent. Treat symptoms; operate on silent stones only for named reasons.

4

Stones at the outlet do more harm. Repeated obstruction can cause chronic cholecystitis; complete cystic duct block, a mucocele; an impacted stone pressing on the bile duct, Mirizzi syndrome.

5

Gallstone ileus. A stone passes through a fistula and blocks the bowel; imaging supports the diagnosis; enterolithotomy, then a search for more stones.

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References

Slide 46: Sources used for this lecture
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Sources used for this lecture

REFERENCES

Bailey & Love's Short Practice of Surgery, 28th edition. Chapter 71, with pages 1052⁠–⁠1054 (chapter 63), 1164, 1227 (chapter 70), 1277, 1316, and 1377 and 1382 (chapter 78). 27th edition, page 1203.

Bailey & Love's Essential Clinical Anatomy. Pages 97 and 117.

Sabiston Textbook of Surgery, 21st edition. Chapter 55.

Schwartz's Principles of Surgery, 11th edition. Chapter 32.

Csendes A, Díaz JC, Burdiles P, Maluenda F, Nava O. Mirizzi syndrome and cholecystobiliary fistula: a unifying classification. British Journal of Surgery 1989; 76: 1139⁠–⁠1143 (slide 30).

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Slide 47: Image credits
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Image credits

REFERENCES

Diagrams: original drawings for this lecture. Images: Wikimedia Commons, page commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File: plus the name; licences at creativecommons.org/licenses.

GALLSTONES AND CHRONIC GALLBLADDER DISEASE

47

SlideFile on Wikimedia CommonsAuthor, licence
3Gallstones.JPGAlex Khimich, public domain
4Human gallstones 2015 G1.jpgGeorge Chernilevsky, CC BY-SA 4.0
7Gallstone black01.jpgMiya.m, CC BY-SA 3.0
15Ultrasonography of sludge and gallstones, annotated.jpgMikael Häggström, M.D., CC0
16Biliary sludge.pngNevit Dilmen, CC BY-SA 3.0
26Chronic calculous cholecystitis.jpgعلاء, CC BY-SA 3.0
27Macro Vésicule biliaire - Mucocèle 55-o.apatho-1157p-vesicule.jpgDenis Desaulniers et Bernard Têtu, CC BY-SA 4.0
32PneumoBiliaArrow.pngJames Heilman, MD, CC BY-SA 4.0
SlideFile on Wikimedia CommonsAuthor, licence
34Gallensteinileus mit klassischer Rigler Trias 81W - CT KM pv - 001 - Annotation.jpgHellerhoff, CC BY-SA 4.0
34Gallensteinileus 86M - CR und CT - 001 - Annotation.jpgHellerhoff, CC BY-SA 4.0
36, 37Cholesterolosis of the Gallbladder.jpgEd Uthman, CC BY 2.0
37Gallbladder- Rokitansky-Aschoff Sinus (15144904071).jpgEd Uthman, CC BY 2.0
38Porzellangallenblase in der Computertomografie und Abdomenuebersicht O - CT und CR - 001.jpgHellerhoff, CC BY-SA 4.0
39GBPolypMark.pngJames Heilman, MD, CC BY-SA 4.0
39Cholesterol Polyps of Gallbladder.jpgEd Uthman, CC BY 2.0
40Salmonella typhi bacteria using a Gram-stain technique.tifUnited States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, public domain

Sources and image credits

Original lecture diagrams and source/image credits are preserved from the PowerPoint. Each photograph or scan below links to its source and applicable licence. Changes are described in the slide captions; adapted ShareAlike images retain that licence.

Images

Sources

  • [1] REFERENCES
  • [2] Sources used for this lecture
  • [3] Bailey & Love's Short Practice of Surgery, 28th edition. Chapter 71, with pages 1052⁠–⁠1054 (chapter 63), 1164, 1227 (chapter 70), 1277, 1316, and 1377 and 1382 (chapter 78). 27th edition, page 1203.
  • [4] Bailey & Love's Essential Clinical Anatomy. Pages 97 and 117.
  • [5] Sabiston Textbook of Surgery, 21st edition. Chapter 55.
  • [6] Schwartz's Principles of Surgery, 11th edition. Chapter 32.
  • [7] Csendes A, Díaz JC, Burdiles P, Maluenda F, Nava O. Mirizzi syndrome and cholecystobiliary fistula: a unifying classification. British Journal of Surgery 1989; 76: 1139⁠–⁠1143 (slide 30).