How to treat intrahepatic bile duct stones

Intrahepatic bile duct stones are a common disease. Especially now that people's living standards have improved, the incidence of this disease is increasing. It can be treated with lithotripsy or some Chinese herbal medicines to help bile and stone excretion.

People with gallstones may not feel anything for a long time. Some only have upper abdominal fullness and back pain, which they may even mistake for "stomach pain" for decades. The disease is more likely to occur after eating greasy food, being tired, and especially at night. Acute cholecystitis is mainly caused by stones blocking the gallbladder duct. The patient will have severe upper abdominal pain and fever, leading to gallbladder inflammation and even gallbladder perforation, which directly threatens life safety. Some gallstones can cause chronic irritation to the gallbladder and lead to gallbladder cancer, which has serious consequences.

Treatment methods fall into four main categories:

(1) Litholytic therapy: Currently, the more effective treatments at home and abroad are chenodeoxycholic acid and ursodeoxycholic acid, which are only suitable for some patients, have a long-lasting effect, are prone to relapse, and have many side effects. They are no longer popular.

(2) Extracorporeal vibration wave lithotripsy: poor efficacy.

(3) Chinese herbal medicine for gallbladder and stone removal: There is no clear effect and it may cause stones to be discharged into the bile duct, causing more serious consequences.

(4) Surgery is the only proven effective method for treating gallstones. After the gallbladder is removed, the site of stone formation is eliminated. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy has been used for more than a decade. That is, 3 or 4 small holes are made in the abdominal wall, and the gallbladder is removed through the "keyhole" using a laparoscope. It has the same therapeutic effect as traditional open cholecystectomy. The patient only needs to stay in the hospital for 3-4 days, can go home 1-2 days after the operation, and can return to normal work in about a week.