Saturday, February 26, 2011

Laparascopic Cholecystectomy [ Gallbladder removal Op ]

More often than not, patients with 'heartburn' who present to me at my outpatient clinic or in ER are really having non cardiac problems. Commonest are certainly pain from GERD [ gastroesophageal reflux ie commonly called by laymen as 'gastric']. Often time pain due to gallbladder inflammation and impacted gallstones also can mimic 'heart pain' of angina.

A good clinician who listen well to the history given by the patient and after a careful physical examination, can usually deduce whether the pain is in the 1st instance cardiac or non cardiac. A stress ECG is usually done in most cases to separate the 'cardiac' from the 'non cardiac'. If stress ECG is normal and if I feel the problem is one of GERD, a referral to a gastroentologist would be done with a view towards upper GIT endoscopy, a procedure that can be done in the morning in a daycare outpatient gastro unit.

If I suspect that the patient's problem is due to gallbladder stone impaction in the cystic duct, I would ask for an ultrasound abdomen. This is a painless outpatient procedure done usually by radiologist [ Xray specialist ] similar to ultrasound examination done in pregnancy except that in this case the area under study is the upper abdomen.

Below are utube presentation of a laparascopic cholecystectomy [ keyhole surgery for gallbladder removal ], and upper GIT endoscopy.



click here,

For actual procedure,
click here

Upper GIT endoscopy,
click here
click here

1 comment:

maggie.danhakl@healthline.com said...

Hi,

Healthline.com recently launched a free interactive "Human Body Maps" tool. I thought your readers would be interested in our body map of the Gallbladder: http://www.healthline.com/human-body-maps/gallbladder

It would be much appreciated if you could include this tool on http://drnikisahak.blogspot.com/2011/02/laparascopic-cholecystectomy.html and / or share with friends and followers. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you in advance.
Warm Regards,

Maggie Danhakl- Assistant Marketing Manager
p: 415-281-3124 f: 415-281-3199

Healthline Networks, Inc. * Connect to Better Health
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