Gallstones are common causes of abdominal pain. Patients usually present with quite severe upper abdominal pain. Many times, the pain is mistaken for ‘gastric pain’ and treated as such. However, in recurrent ‘gastric pain’ especially if it is severe, one must always suspect that the pain may be due to gallstones. With this suspicion, further investigations like an ultrasound of the gallbladder, are performed, and then the actual cause of pain becomes apparent. It is not uncommon to see patients who have experienced a long history of being treated as ‘gastric pain’ actually having gallstones. The treatment of symptomatic Gallstones is by surgery.

The surgery performed is a Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy, which is removal of the Gallbladder and stones via ‘key-hole’ surgery. A few tiny incisions are all that are required to perform the surgery. Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy (Key-hole surgery to remove the Gallbladder and gallstones are very common procedures. They can usually be performed with a 1-night stay in hospital. Patients are usually mobile soon after surgery.