Treatment ?

To start off with there’s ultrasound to see if there’s any stones or sludge in the gallbladder. It also checks the thickness of the gallbladder walls to see if they’re thickened which can be cholecystitis. There’s also MRCP which is an MRI of the liver, pancreas, gallbladder and bile ducts. 

Then there’s ERCP which is an endoscopy where they examine the bile and pancreatic ducts. They can sometimes make cuts in the ducts to allow stones to pass through more freely or to put a stent in the duct to keep it open for the same reason. They can also remove small stones with this procedure. 

You can have a CT done which sometimes shows gallstones or gallbladder problems as well. The downfall to this is there’s a lot of radioation in CT scans. I’ve had 2 of these in a year and the radiologist wasn’t too happy for me to have the second one because of this. 

If you get diagnosed with gallstones that are causing serious problems then the best advice is to remove the gallbladder. If a stone gets stuck in the pancreatic duct you can end up with pancreatitis which can be life threatening. Also if your gallbladder is inflamed in the case of cholecystitis this is serious as well. If you get a HIDA scan and it shows a poorly functioning gallbladder then best advice is to get it out.

There will always be people trying to sell gallbladder cleanses and things like that but wouldn’t advise going any of this! There’s also ursodol medication which can sometimes be given for gallstones but can take years of treatment and doesn’t often work.

Hopefully this has helped slightly xx

Ultrasound, mrcp, ercp, ct scan and HIDA scan are all ways to check if there are gallstones, if the gallbladder has thickened walls or is distended, or can see if there are stones blocking any of the ducts. 

Treatment for gallstones causing problems is generally removal of the gallbladder. If not removed this can occasionally cause cholecystitis, pancreatitis or obstructive jaundice so nothing to mess about with. Hope you get some answers soon xx

1,Hida scan to see how much % it works.

2.ultrasound to check stones

the treatment options other than gallbladder removal is below.

if you have no stones, but less working gb then

1. Low fat/protein/oil diet

2. No eating in restaurant

3. Excercise

4. No Junk food

intially i had a non working gb and did all the above , but after 5 years i have developed gallstones. Now my only option is to remove gb.