One of the most common operations performed in the United States is gall bladder surgery. In nearly all cases, gall bladder surgery means that the gall bladder is surgically taken out. There is no reason why someone cannot live a normal life without a gall bladder; and, because relatively minor gall bladder problems can sometimes cause major complications, it is common practice to remove a diseased gallbladder through gall bladder surgery.

The gall bladder is a small, pear-shaped sack nestled underneath your liver near the lower border of your ribs. Its job is to collect "bile" - a mixture of digestive juices produced by the liver - and to dispense the bile into your small intestine after a meal to aid in digestion, especially of fatty foods. After someone has gall bladder surgery to remove a diseased gall bladder, bile by the liver simply travels directly into the small intestine on a continual basis.

Sometimes some of the digestive "salts" present in bile will condense and form stones. Someone with gallstones may feel pain (sometimes very intense pain), especially after eating a fatty meal, when the gallbladder attempts to squeeze out its digestive bile to digest the fats; when it squeezes against a stone, the result is, not surprisingly, pain.

If you have gallstones, your surgeon may recommend gall bladder surgery to remove the gall bladder. This will cure the problem and prevent it from recurring, without causing any problems in your daily life. Other conditions may also require gall bladder surgery. Infections or cancer of the gall bladder, for instance, may require gall bladder surgery. In these instances of gall bladder surgery, too, the gall bladder is almost always removed.

Gall bladder surgery is usually performed under general anesthesia (you are put to sleep). And, unless the surgeon suspects complications, gall bladder surgery is usually performed as laparascopic gall bladder surgery. This means that a series of four small incisions (cuts) are made in your abdomen (belly) and instruments are inserted that will inflate the abdomen (so the surgeon can see inside), provide a picture that the surgeon can watch on a television monitor, and separate organs and cut out the gall bladder. The whole gall bladder surgery usually takes under an hour; recovery takes a couple of weeks.

Gall bladder surgery is one of the most routine surgeries performed and the results are usually very good.