Effects of cholecystectomy on the liver

Modern people's lives are getting better and better. Many high-fat, high-calorie foods are increasingly appearing on the table, causing many people to become obese. Obesity is an important factor causing gallstones. Coupled with irregular daily life, overwork, skipping breakfast, etc., gallbladder diseases will occur more frequently, and severe cases will lead to gallbladder removal. So, will gallbladder removal affect the liver?

Once suffering from gallstones, many people hope for conservative treatment and choose to "live with the stones" until they have no other choice but to opt for surgical treatment, fearing that gallbladder removal will affect their quality of life in the future. So the question is, what is the impact of gallbladder removal on the human body?

According to the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, the gallbladder is one of the six internal organs in the human body and is also an extraordinary organ. In addition to being responsible for storing and excreting bile, it also has the function of judging things and making decisions. People with weak gallbladder will experience mental conditions such as timidity, easy fright, and insomnia. Therefore, from the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine, the gallbladder is an absolutely indispensable organ.

Modern medicine believes that the gallbladder is just a storage organ, responsible for storing bile produced in the liver. When we eat, the gallbladder contracts and discharges bile to help digest lipids in food. Therefore, gallbladder removal does not affect the production of bile. The bile produced by the liver goes directly through the common bile duct into the duodenum and participates in food digestion. In general, in theory, gallbladder removal will not have any impact on the human body.

In fact, in some patients with recurrent chronic cholecystitis, their gallbladder has lost its normal physiological function, and it is more likely to cause problems if it remains in the body. People who "live with stones" for a long time are prone to repeated biliary colic as the stones grow larger; long-term and repeated attacks of chronic cholecystitis stimulate the gallbladder to form gallbladder polyps, which may even become malignant. Therefore, if the surgical indications are met, it is advisable to choose surgery. Although studies have shown that cholecystectomy increases the risk of colorectal cancer, this conclusion is still controversial. At present, it is more inclined to believe that laparoscopic cholecystectomy does not increase the risk of digestive tract cancers such as small intestine cancer and colon cancer.

Of course, cholecystectomy does not mean there is no effect on the body. In addition to the risk of extrahepatic bile duct damage and bleeding during the operation, the patient is more likely to experience diarrhea after cholecystectomy, and a small number of patients will also develop reflux esophagitis, reflux gastritis and other diseases. This may be related to the lack of the concentrating function of the gallbladder, which means that the bile in the intestine cannot reach a sufficient concentration, resulting in impaired digestion and absorption of fat and causing diarrhea. But overall, the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. Many studies have conducted long-term follow-up on patients who have undergone cholecystectomy, and the results have shown that cholecystectomy can significantly improve the patient's quality of life, and patients no longer have to worry about the recurrence of cholecystitis or gallstones. If we still cannot accept a cowardly life, then we should start from the root and eat a regular and light diet to reduce the risk of such diseases.