Having gallstones can be painful, such as the case of one man who had 4,100 gallstones removed from his gallbladder in surgery.
The Patient Was In Pain From Gallstones
Yogesh Yewle is a hardware store manager who lives in India. For an undisclosed amount of time, he experienced some discomfort from his abdomen.
As a treatment, he used over-the-counter painkillers and other pills for stomach pain. These measures helped with the symptoms, but they did nothing to solve the underlying medical condition that Yewle was suffering from.
In May 2018, the 43-year-old noticed that the pain was more intense, and no pills would help. He went to the local hospital to speak to a doctor.
At the hospital, the doctors conducted a CT scan and a sonogram to see where the pain is coming from in his body. The tests indicated that the problem area was the gallbladder, and the pain was from gallstones.
"The [sonogram] showed that a single mass was occupying the entire gallbladder, as in sonography it is difficult to distinguish between the small stones," Dr. Amit Sharad Kele told Fox News. "Whereas the CT scan report showed cholecystitis which is inflammation of the gallbladder."
The gallstones that were causing the pain were entirely invisible during the scans. That means that the doctors had no idea how many gallstones were inside of Yewle.
Surgery To Remove The Gallstones
Although the doctors could not spot the actual gallstones, they still opted for an emergency surgery to remove them. It took doctors over two hours to remove the gallstones from Yewle. The surgery was on May 26.
Doctors pulled out about 4,100 gallstones from Yewle. Two doctors painstakingly counted the gallstones for over two hours just to get the exact number.
"[We] were surprised to find multiple stones," Dr. Kele said. "Usually, we get to see two to twenty stones, but here there were so many."
Dr. Kele said that poor dietary choices likely caused the gallstones.
Yewle is doing well after the surgery. He will be discharged from the hospital in a few days.
What Should Patients Know About Gallstones
WebMD says that most people who have gallstones don't actually realize they have them until there is a complication. People who are at risk to get them are usually obese, have diabetes, or they are losing weight rapidly. The quickest way to get rid of the gallstones is to have surgery.
