Surgeons of the Da Nang-based Police Hospital 199 under the Ministry of Public Security have successfully performed an emergency surgery to remove 56 gallstones from a female patient’s gallbladder.

Previously, a 29-year-old female patient, residing in Tho Quang Ward, Son Tra District, was hospitalised with complaints of pain in the right lower quadrant.

The woman said that she underwent a surgery to remove gallstones 4 years ago, but she has recently experienced pain in the right lower abdomen.

After visiting medical facilities, she was diagnosed with many gallstones in her gallbladder, but she chose the option of medical treatment rather than surgery.

Through clinical examination combined with ultrasound, doctors diagnosed the patient with chronic cholecystitis with gallstones filling her gallbladder lumen.

Then, doctors of General Surgery of the hospital indicated laparoscopic cholecystectomy. After the surgery, the doctor found up to 56 gallstones in the patient’s gallbladder, the largest one being about 12mm in diameter. Currently, her health is in stable condition and she can walk and eat normally.

According to Dr Tran Nguyen Phu from the Department of General Surgery of the hospital, gallstones are stone-like objects that develop in the gallbladder or bile ducts (the pipe-like system within the liver). Gallstones can range dramatically in size, from tiny grains of sand to golf ball-sized objects. Gallstones are relatively common in obese adults, women taking estrogen-containing contraceptives and those with inflammatory bowel disease. If the patient has certain complications associated with gallstones, the surgeon may need to remove the gallbladder with an open cholecystectomy.

Reporting by PHAN CHUNG – Translating by M.DUNG