Surgery to remove the gallbladder, also known as a cholecystectomy, is often recommended as the best treatment for pain related to gallstones — hardened deposits that form from bile, the liquid stored in the gallbladder that aids in digestion.
As with any surgery, gallbladder removal comes with a risk of complications. These include general risks associated with surgery, as well as potential changes to your digestion. There’s also a small risk of more serious complications that may require further medical or surgical intervention.
After your gallbladder is removed, your liver will still produce enough bile to help digest your food, but it won’t be stored in the same way.
Without a gallbladder to store bile between meals, your small intestine will need to rely on your liver to produce more of the bile it needs.
While your liver will eventually adapt to this situation, you may have difficulty digesting certain foods at first.
High-fat and certain high-fiber foods tend to be the most difficult ones to digest in the days and weeks following gallbladder removal. As a result, you may experience these symptoms:
Diarrhea (Bile acid malabsorption as a cause of diarrhea is common and is treatable with bile acid sequestrants.)
If these are the only symptoms you experience, and they occur after meals, they can probably be explained as a normal postsurgical reaction rather than a worrisome complication.
You may be able to reduce these symptoms by limiting fatty foods in your diet (such as fried foods, high-fat meat and dairy products, and cooking oils), cutting back on certain irritating and gas-producing foods (whole grains, nuts, seeds, broccoli, cabbage, spicy foods), and eating smaller, more frequent meals.
While digestive changes after gallbladder removal may be alarming, they’re usually not an indication that anything is seriously wrong or that further treatment is needed. Dietary changes and time are usually the best way to manage any digestive symptoms.
In addition to the expected digestive side effects, gallbladder removal is typically considered a minimally invasive procedure, but it carries a small risk of other complications. These include:
Bile Leakage
As part of the surgery to remove your gallbladder, clips are used to seal the tube that connects the gallbladder to your main bile duct.
It’s possible, though, for bile to leak into the abdomen if the clip doesn’t adequately seal the tube.
When a bile leak occurs, symptoms may include abdominal pain, nausea, fever, and swelling of the abdomen.
Sometimes a bile leak can be drained without the need for further surgery. In more severe cases, though, an operation is needed to drain the bile and wash out the inside of your abdomen.
Bile Duct Injury
In some cases, your main bile duct may be injured in the course of removing your gallbladder. During surgery, bile ducts may be cut, pinched, or burned.
This can lead to the leakage of bile into the abdomen or the blockage of bile flow from the liver.
If your surgeon realizes this right away, it may be possible to fix the problem immediately. More severe bile duct injuries are often referred to medical centers with expert teams that can better deal with this problem.
Injury to Surrounding Structures
In extremely rare cases, your surgery may cause damage to nearby blood vessels, your liver, or your intestines.
These problems can usually be spotted and fixed right away, but if they’re not noticed until later, another operation may be needed.
Recurrent Stones
An obstruction from a new stone in your biliary tract can occur even after gallbladder surgery
In some cases, this can cause severe pain. Some people can form stones in their bile ducts even after gallbladder surgery. Surgically removing these stones may resolve the pain.
Blood Clots
People with certain risk factors — like prior clots, prolonged immobilization, or cancer — are at higher risk for developing a blood clot after surgery.
This type of clot, known as deep vein thrombosis, usually develops in your leg but can travel to and lodge in other areas of your body, cutting off blood flow to parts of your lungs (known as pulmonary embolism).
If you have an elevated risk of blood clots, talk to your doctor about ways to mitigate the risk. These may include getting up and walking around as soon as possible after surgery, wearing medical compression stockings, and taking blood-thinning medication to prevent clots.
Infection
After your surgery, you may develop either an internal infection or one at the incision site.
Signs of an infected wound include:
Increased pain at the site
Swelling
Redness
Pus leaking from the wound
To treat an infection, your doctor will prescribe antibiotics. In rare cases, it may be necessary to surgically drain fluid or pus from the infected area.
Bleeding (Hemorrhage)
While it’s rare, bleeding can occur internally or externally after your operation. If this happens, you may need a further operation to stop the bleeding.
Scars and Numbness
You may develop scarring and a loss of sensation at or around your incision sites.
Hernia
Part of your intestines or some other tissue may bulge through your abdominal wall at the incision site. This bulge, called a hernia, may be painful, and if it doesn’t resolve on its own, it may require surgery to correct.
General Surgical Complications
The following are risks inherent to all surgeries, not just gallbladder surgery:
Reactions to Anesthesia It’s possible, though very rare, to have severe reactions to the anesthesia used for your surgery, including a severe allergic reaction or even sudden death.
Heart Problems If you already have cardiovascular disease, the stress of surgery can cause or worsen heart problems.
Pneumonia During your surgery, you’ll be given a breathing tube since you won’t be able to breathe on your own under general anesthesia. This ventilated breathing may increase your risk of pneumonia. In rare cases, you can develop a lung infection following your surgery as a result of this. Depending on its severity, you may be prescribed oral antibiotics, or you may need to be hospitalized and given intravenous fluids and antibiotics.
Gallbladder surgery, called a cholecystectomy, often helps to prevent pain from gallstones by removing the gallbladder, which stores bile for digestion.
While the surgery is generally safe, you might experience some changes in your digestion afterward, including diarrhea related to bile acid malabsorption
Eating smaller, low-fat meals can aid in easier digestion after the surgery.
If you have more serious complications, additional medical treatment or surgery may be necessary.
