A biliary colic is a continuous type of pain in the pit of the stomach and/or in the right subcostal region, usually radiating to the right dorsal region. In addition, this discomfort is often accompanied by oral intolerance, nausea, bilious or greenish vomiting, and sometimes jaundice and choluria (dark urine).
Biliary colic is more frequent in women, with a rate twice that of men. In Spain almost 10% of the population has or will have gallstones in the gallbladder, although not all of them produce symptoms. The main cause of biliary colic is cholelithiasis, that is, the presence of stones inside the gallbladder.
Treatment: in which cases is surgery necessary?
Most cholelithiasis are asymptomatic. In many cases they are detected incidentally during abdominal ultrasound. In asymptomatic cases surgical intervention is not usually necessary, although the characteristics of the calculus, its size and location must also be taken into account.
When symptoms are present, cholelithiasis should be treated surgically. The best and most beneficial technique is the laparoscopic approach, which uses small abdominal incisions of 1 or 2 cm, through which the necessary surgical instruments are introduced for the complete removal of the gallbladder with the stones inside.
This technique can be used in the vast majority of cases, except in a small percentage that require open or traditional surgery through a right subcostal incision. All patients are, in principle, candidates for laparoscopic surgical treatment, although there are some situations or medical and surgical history that may contraindicate this approach.
Laparoscopic surgery: preparation and recovery
This type of technique does not require any type of preparation, except for the pre-anesthetic assessment before the operation.
On the other hand, the great advantage of laparoscopic surgery is recovery, since it is practically immediate. A few hours after the laparoscopic cholecystectomy, oral intake is reintroduced and the patient is discharged from the hospital, which usually takes 24 to 48 hours. From then on, patients can lead a normal life, avoiding intense physical effort and the ingestion of fatty foods until the revision with the specialist surgeon.