Can trauma increase risk of developing gallstones?

[fishwater]

If a 37 year old obese female has a gallbladder attack and gallstones are discovered two months after a carwreck where patient suffered minor soft tissue injuries, could there be a link between the gallstones developing and the accident?  "fat embolus" is a term someone suggested as a possible explanation.

[fishwater]

thanks!

[Fuzzz]

This article mentions acute pancreatitis after blunt trauma causing fat embolus, but that's very different from gallbladder stones.  That's the closest this article comes to a gallbladder problem.  (That is, the pancreas is close to the gallbladder and can itself cause complications of pancreatitis, but there are many causes of pancreatitis).

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/460524-overview

[Fuzzz]

I do not believe gallstones can develop suddenly from any reason.  I believe it takes time for stones to form and grow to a size that causes problems.  However, you may have had gallstones for a long time and your gallbladder might be extremely inflamed, and if you are injured in the abdomen over your gallbladder, I would imagine that there would be a chance that the weakened wall of the gallbladder could be ruptured by that impact.  But if that didn't happen and it's just a finding of gallstones, I agree it is just coincidental.  Hey, my husband's appendix went bad less than a month after my gallbladder had to come out quite suddenly.  There's another odd coincidence.  Can't blame it on anything.  Oh, and I never had an actual gallbladder attack until after my gallbladder ultrasound (just days later!).  I don't blame the ultrasound for the gallbladder attack.  I blame it on the fact that we had a party at work with both pizza and cheesecake.  I wanted to go along with everybody and not make a fuss, even though I had not had an appetite for months and months.  Knowing my gallbladder had stones, I tried to be sensible and just have two pieces of veggie pieces and two bites of cheesecake, you know, to be polite.  The next day I had 30 hours of misery - my first gallbladder attack.  If I hadn't just found out I had gallbladder stones, I might have thought it was a heart attack.  It felt like I was having a heart attack, but lower.  

[fishwater]

I agree but does the amount of fat in the bloodstream increase when you are involved in an accident because of being knocked around thereby enhancing conditions developing gallstones?

[CalGal]

Gallstones typically take awhile to form, so it's unlikely that the stones would be a result of a car wreck. It is more probable that she falls into the category of female at about 40 years of age and carrying some weight.