Gallbladder Attacks after Removal Surgery

[mommas_girl]

My mother had her gallbladder removed a couple of years ago, but still has severe attacks post surgery.  One doctor at the ER said that people can still have gallbladder attacks after the removal, but another told her on Thursday, when she went back in with severe pain, that gallbladder attacks after surgery is impossible.  Any words of wisdom?

[AmandaMiller]

I am not a doctor.. but I was reading something about how the gallbladder itself is removed, but the ducts are not.. so the duct may be what the problem is.. not the "phantom" gallbladder.

[CalGal]

It is very possible to have problems after the GB is removed. Your mother needs to find a doc to work with her to find out what is causing the pain. One of the major problems is called SOD - sphincter of Oddi dysfunction. You can google it to find out what it involves, but in general it could be 'residual' small stones in the ducts, or spasms of the ducts that can result in miserable pain. To look for changes to the common bile duct and the pancreatic duct, she could request an MRCP. If stones are found they could be removed via ERCP.

Ask your mom to ask the doc for an order to be able to go to the lab and get blood drawn within 24 hours of acute pain. That order should look for changes in liver enzymes and pancreatic amylase. If there are elevated levels, it will give docs a clue as to what might be going on.

Far too many docs say 'nothing' can go wrong after the surgery, but as millions of people have found out that statement is incorrect.

If she's not following a low-fat diet, she might want to try that. It doesn't always help, but?

[mommas_girl]

My mom ended up having a gall stone removed surgically last week.  As it turns out, one of two things could have happened.  One, that the stone has been "floating" since she had the gallbladder removed and just found itself in a very painful location for my mom.  Two, that the duct that remains after the gallbladder is removed created a new stone, which is very rare, but does happen.  Either way, she is pain-free since the surgery.  Thank you to everyone who responded.