Gallstones and cholecystitis

For a lay person:

Gallstones are hard deposits that form in the gallbladder. Many cause no symptoms, but a stone that blocks the gallbladder outlet causes attacks of upper-right abdominal pain, and infection or inflammation of the gallbladder (cholecystitis) causes pain with fever.

For a trained medical person:

Cholelithiasis is common, mostly cholesterol stones. Complications include biliary colic, acute cholecystitis, choledocholithiasis, cholangitis and gallstone pancreatitis. Diagnosis is by ultrasound. Symptomatic disease is usually treated with cholecystectomy.

In Chinese medicine:

Flaws and Sionneau's textbook differentiates this condition into these patterns: Liver-gallbladder depression and stagnation; Damp heat internally brewing; Heat toxins burning and blazing; Qi and blood deficiency, phlegm and turbidity mutually binding; Qi and yin insufficiency; Roundworm reversal. Treatment follows the pattern a patient presents with, not the Western diagnosis alone.

When to get help: Get emergency care for severe abdominal pain with fever, yellowing of the skin or eyes, or pain that lasts more than a few hours.