Gallstone facts for kids

gallstones

A gallstone is like a tiny, hard pebble that can form inside your gallbladder. Your gallbladder is a small organ under your liver that helps you digest food. These "pebbles" are usually made of things found in your bile, a liquid that helps break down fats. Sometimes, these stones can move into other tubes that carry bile, which can cause a lot of pain. If that happens, doctors might need to remove them, often with surgery.

Your Gallbladder: A Helper for Digestion

Your gallbladder is a small, pear-shaped organ located just under your liver. Its main job is to store and concentrate bile. Bile is a special liquid made by your liver that helps your body digest fats from the food you eat. When you eat, your gallbladder releases this bile into your small intestine to help with digestion.

How Do Gallstones Form?

Gallstones form when substances in your bile, like cholesterol or bilirubin (a waste product), become too concentrated. Instead of staying liquid, they can harden and form solid crystals, which then grow into stones.

• Cholesterol stones are the most common type. They are usually yellow-green and are made mostly of hardened cholesterol.
• Pigment stones are smaller and darker. They are made of bilirubin.

It's not always clear why some people get gallstones and others don't. Things like your diet, your weight, and even your genes can play a role.

What Happens When Gallstones Cause Trouble?

Many people have gallstones and don't even know it because they don't cause any problems. These are called "silent" gallstones. However, if a gallstone moves and blocks one of the bile ducts (the tubes that carry bile), it can cause sudden, intense pain. This pain is often felt in the upper right part of your belly and can spread to your back or shoulder. This is sometimes called a "gallbladder attack." Other symptoms can include:

• Nausea or vomiting
• Fever
• Yellowing of the skin or eyes (jaundice), which means the bile ducts are blocked.

If you ever feel this kind of pain, it's important to tell a grown-up right away so you can see a doctor.

How Doctors Help with Gallstones

If gallstones are causing problems, doctors have a few ways to help:

• Watching and Waiting: If the gallstones aren't causing any symptoms, doctors might just suggest watching them.
• Medication: Sometimes, medicines can be used to dissolve certain types of gallstones, but this can take a long time and doesn't always work.
• Surgery: The most common treatment for gallstones that cause pain is surgery to remove the gallbladder. This surgery is called a cholecystectomy. It's usually done using small cuts and a special camera (laparoscopic surgery), which means you can recover fairly quickly. You can live a normal life without your gallbladder because your liver still makes bile, and it can find other ways to get to your small intestine.

Images for kids

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  From left to right: cholesterol stone, mixed stone, pigment stone.

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  Gallbladder opened to show small cholesterol gallstones

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  X-ray microtomograph of a gallstone

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  The large, yellow stone is largely cholesterol, while the green-to-brown stones are mostly composed of bile pigments

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  Large gallstone

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  A 1.9 cm gallstone impacted in the neck of the gallbladder and leading to cholecystitis as seen on ultrasound. There is 4 mm gall bladder wall thickening.

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  Biliary sludge and gallstones. There is borderline thickening of the gallbladder wall.

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  Gallstones as seen on plain X-ray

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  Large gallstone as seen on CT

See also

In Spanish: Colelitiasis para niños