Treatment of Gallstones

Gallstones that are symptomatic requires treatments.

• Surgery: surgical removal of the gall bladder is usually the first line of treatment because the providers feels that it is safe and has limited side effects. The only side effects know with cholecystectomy (surgical removal of the gallbladder) is diarrhea. The diarrhea occurs after consumption of foods that contains fat. The diarrhea resolves with time because liver adjust to digesting fats. 
•  Nutritional Therapy: In some cases the patient might want conservative nutrition therapy. which is avoiding foods that contains fats that could trigger the gallstones symptoms. Most physicians don’t usually recommend conservative treatment because is not very effective and people can feel deprived when told that they cannot consume fatty foods at all. Nutrition therapy can also be used post-surgery by advising patient to limit their fat intake in order to avoid diarrhea. The only side effects is difficulty adhering to the diet restrictions.
•  Bile Catheter: Transhepatic bile catheter is sometimes inserted into the patient gallbladder to collect the bile. The catheter is used for biliary obstruction and hepatic dysfunction secondary to jaundice. This is for patient that has obstruction to the liver causing jaundice (yellow of skin). The only side effects to this is having an artificial object in the gallbladder that could lead to plague build up. 
• Drug therapy: Drug is recommended only patient who cannot undergo surgery and other treatment therapy. Drug is usually the last resort because it takes months or years to work. The side effects of the medication is nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or constipation, and skin rash. During an acute pain of gallstones patients are give analgesic, Morphine, NSAIDs (Ibuprofen, Advil, and ketrolac) for pain management. Anticholinergics such as atropine and other antispasmodics are used to relax the smooth muscle and reduce ductal tone. The major side effects of this medication are constipation and nausea. 

               Work Cited

        Lewis Dirksen and Heitkemper Bucher Medical Surgical Nursing 9th edition page 1038 to 1039