Gall bladder

The Gall bladder (sometimes written as Gallbladder) is a non-vital organ whose role is to help with the digestive process by covering foods with bile.

In people with acid reflux, anaemia, allergies or other major digestive system problems, the gall bladder can have a vital role in helping to improve their life expectancy and quality of life. In the majority of people, however, keeping the gall bladder or not is of no major consequence.

The gall bladder is notoriously incapable of performing its role correctly, however, and is the single most common organ to malfunction. As a result, there have at times been pushes amongst surgeons to remove the gall bladder "if in doubt". As a result, even in minor cases of the production of a single gall stone, some surgeons recommend the complete removal of the gall bladder (cholecystectomy) as opposed to simply the removal of the gall stone itself (cholelithotomy).

Whilst there is debate about the merits of removing the gall bladder "just in case", there is no serious debate about whether or not a gall bladder should be removed when it is functioning correctly and the patient has major digestive system problems. Doing so in such cases is negligent as it would lead to major morbidities in the patient, who will be forced to make major dietary and lifestyle changes, their quality of life will diminish significantly and they will be likely to die at a much younger age. Whilst the gall bladder may still be removed in these cases, if the non-removal of the gall bladder will create greater or more immediate life-threatening situations, it is generally regarded that in such patients gall bladder removal should be avoided if at all possible.

Some of the common problems with the gall bladder include inflammation, production of gall stones (especially multiple gall stones), disintegration (partial or whole) of the gall bladder, malformation and interference with other organs.

In cases where the gall bladder itself is malfunctioning, cholecystectomy is commonly recommended.