Why should you be afraid of acute cholecystitis?

A variety of causes can cause cholecystitis (inflammation of the gallbladder), most often an infection, cholelithiasis or parasitic disease. The problem is common, occurring in all age and sex groups, although most often in women who eat a lot and often. It also provokes the emergence of acute cholecystitis, mechanical stasis of bile, including caused by nutritional errors and alcohol consumption. Among the violations of the diet most conducive to the disease - a combination of long periods of hunger with overeating. Promoting the development of inflammation and such factors as hypodynamia, pregnancy and chronic diseases of the gastrointestinal tract (gastritis, pancreatitis). Disturbances in bile outflow due to the pathology of muscle fibers (both the bladder and bile ducts) create favorable conditions for the "ascent" of infection from the intestine and the development of bacterial inflammation, as well as for the formation of stones (which, in their turn, after a while too Can cause severe inflammation). The picture of acute cholecystitis may well be due to the presence of parasites - lamblia. This disease (giardiasis) is especially widespread in children.

Symptoms and manifestations

If acute cholecystitis develops, the clinic will be the same, regardless of the cause. Suddenly, there is acute severe pain in the right hypochondrium, often it radiates (gives) to the back and shoulder blade (more often on the right side). Typical manifestations: fever (sometimes the temperature rises to fairly high figures), headache and sweating, nausea until vomiting, and sometimes diarrhea. When mechanical damage to the outflow of bile (usually due to blockage of the biliary tract stones) may develop jaundice. The muscles at the top of the abdomen are usually strained, tapping under the costal arch and pressing the finger at the point of intersection of the rectus abdominal muscle with it will give a strong pain. However, to get involved in checking the medical symptoms is not necessary, for their accurate detection requires special education.

What should I fear

The danger of acute cholecystitis is in its complications. The situation with an extremely high risk is the development of secondary pancreatitis. However, to understand the order of inflammation is often difficult, and not very necessary. If the symptoms of intoxication become worse, and the pains become shrouded, then there is inflammation of the pancreas. The only true action is to call for emergency medical care, because pancreatitis is a condition that really threatens life. The second most dangerous complication is perforation, that is, the rupture of the gallbladder wall. Is it worth explaining that the outflow of bile directly into the abdominal cavity immediately causes its inflammation - peritonitis!

Treatment

Help in acute cholecystitis should be provided by a doctor. At home, you need to give up eating, keep bed rest and call a specialist. No more actions should be performed. If an attack of acute pain occurs against a background of chronic inflammation, then you can try to stop it with medicines known to you (antispasmodics, cholagogic means), but in this case it is better to consult a doctor. Drug therapy for acute cholecystitis involves anesthesia with spasmolytic drugs (which simultaneously improves the outflow of bile), detoxification and intravenous infusions, antibacterial drugs. With the growth, regardless of treatment, symptoms of intoxication or in the development of complications, a surgical operation is performed. If there is no peritonitis, then it can be performed by low-trauma with the help of endoscopic technique.