Gall Bladder Disease
 Because fat cannot be dissolved in water, a special system has evolved for its digestion and its absorption through the intestinal wall. Bile is an essential factor in this, since it contains substances that allow fats to be emulsified. It also stimulates the secretion of an enzyme concerned with the breakdown of fats. Bile is secreted by the liver and stored in the gallbladder until needed. When fat is eaten, this stimulates the gallbladder to contract and bile flows down the cystic duct, into the common bile duct and through the ampulla of Vater into the intestine. As well as acting as a storage vessel, the gallbladder concentrates the bile within it by removing water through its wall. Thus, if the gallbladder is removed, although bile still flows into the intestine from the liver, fat digestion may be less efficient because the bile is not concentrated.
Acute Cholecystitis
Twenty percent of those who develop gallbladder symptoms suffer from
this condition, which most frequently affects women between the
ages of twenty and forty. Like chronic cholecystitis, it is caused
by a stone becoming jammed either in the junction of the gallbladder
and duct or in the duct itself, and many patients have previously
suffered from binary colic, indigestion, or flatulence. The pain
of acute cholecystitis stems from inflammation that is probably
caused at first by the chemicals in the bile. However, a bacterial
infection then supervenes in 50 percent or more of cases. The pain
comes on suddenly and is severe and constant. It is felt across
the right and central parts of the upper abdomen and under the right
shoulder blade. The patient usually vomits and is quite ill and
feverish. If the common bile duct becomes swollen, slight jaundice
may occur as bile from the liver is prevented from passing into
the intestine and enters the bloodstream instead.
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