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Basics

• Summary
• Start Here
• Diagnosis and Tests
• Prevention and Risk Factors
• Treatments and Therapies

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• Living With
• Related Issues
• Specifics

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Research

• Clinical Trials
• Journal Articles

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• Patient Handouts

Summary

Your gallbladder is a pear-shaped organ under your liver. It stores bile, a fluid made by your liver to digest fat. As your stomach and intestines digest food, your gallbladder releases bile through a tube called the common bile duct. The duct connects your gallbladder and liver to your small intestine.

Your gallbladder is most likely to give you trouble if something blocks the flow of bile through the bile ducts. That is usually a gallstone. Gallstones form when substances in bile harden. Rarely, you can also get cancer in your gallbladder.

Many gallbladder problems get better with removal of the gallbladder. Fortunately, you can live without a gallbladder. Bile has other ways of reaching your small intestine.

Start Here

• Biliary Tract Disorders, Gallbladder Disorders, and Gallstone Pancreatitis (American College of Gastroenterology) Also in Spanish
• Overview of Gallbladder and Bile Duct Disorders (Merck & Co., Inc.) Also in Spanish

Diagnosis and Tests

• Abdominal Ultrasound (American College of Radiology; Radiological Society of North America) Also in Spanish
• Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) (National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases) Also in Spanish
• Hepatobiliary Nuclear Medicine (American College of Radiology; Radiological Society of North America) Also in Spanish
• Laparoscopy (National Library of Medicine) Also in Spanish

Prevention and Risk Factors

• Humble Gallbladder (Harvard Medical School)

Treatments and Therapies

• Cholecystectomy (Johns Hopkins Medicine)
• Gallbladder Removal: Laparoscopic Method (American Academy of Family Physicians) Also in Spanish
• Recovering After Emergency Gallbladder Surgery (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality) - PDF

Living With

• Can You Recommend a Diet After Gallbladder Removal? (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research) Also in Spanish

Related Issues

• Sphincter of Oddi Dysfunction (International Foundation for Gastrointestinal Disorders)

Specifics

• Cholecystitis (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research) Also in Spanish
• Gallbladder Polyps: Can They Be Cancerous? (Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research) Also in Spanish

Clinical Trials

• ClinicalTrials.gov: Cholecystectomy (National Institutes of Health)
• ClinicalTrials.gov: Gallbladder Diseases (National Institutes of Health)

Journal Articles References and abstracts from MEDLINE/PubMed (National Library of Medicine)

• Article: Robotic-assisted versus conventional/single-incision laparoscopic cholecystectomy for benign gallbladder disease: A systematic...
• Article: Comparative analysis of indocyanine green dosages for optimal fluorescence imaging in...
• Article: Global burden of gallbladder and biliary diseases (1990-2021) with healthcare workforce...
• Gallbladder Diseases -- see more articles

Reference Desk

• Gallbladder and Biliary Tract (Merck & Co., Inc.) Also in Spanish

Find an Expert

• National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

Patient Handouts

• Acute cholecystitis (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
• Bilirubin - urine (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
• Chronic cholecystitis (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
• Gallbladder removal - laparoscopic - discharge (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
• Laparoscopic gallbladder removal (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish
• Open gallbladder removal (Medical Encyclopedia) Also in Spanish