Many obese people who, as a rule, do not adhere to the principles of a rational and wholesome diet, can encounter symptoms of cholecystitis. Such subjects consume an excessive amount of fatty foods that their body is not able to fully digest. At some point in humans, the possibilities of internal compensatory mechanisms end and the formation of an insoluble precipitate in the gallbladder begins, which later forms stones in it. This process is often accompanied by inflammatory phenomena in the wall of the gallbladder and the ducts going to it and from it.
At the very beginning of the disease, patients may not be bothered. In the future, the first signs of cholecystitis necessarily appear, which are associated with a feeling of overcrowding and heaviness in the right hypochondrium, i.e. at the site of the projection of the liver and the gallbladder itself, as well as in dyspeptic syndrome. Dyspepsia can be moderate with a mild course of the process, or very severe, in the form of vomiting of bile and a taste in the mouth of sharp bitterness with the progression of the disease.
At a certain point, when a person violates his diet too much or undergoes intense shaking, the calculus from the gallbladder begins to shift from its place and actively migrate towards the flow of bile. Stones, as a rule, begin to get stuck already in the neck of the gallbladder. Some of them, which are smaller in their dimensions of the lumen of the neck, go further, getting stuck in the ducts or at the mouth of the sphincter of Oddi. The movement of the stone does not pass without a trace, even for the most "thick-skinned" patients. Symptoms of cholecystitis are aggravated by an attack of sharp and painful hepatic colic. From the fact that the calculus blocked the exit of bile, signs of intoxication and inflammation begin to grow. There is a fever due to rising temperature, in the hypochondrium, where the liver is located, a dull pain pulsates, radiating also to other areas of the body. Cholecystitis, the signs of which depend on its form: catarrhal, purulent or gangrenous, is itself a very insidious disease. It can simulate an attack of appendicitis, heart pain, or disguise itself as an exacerbation of osteochondrosis. Therefore, at the very beginning it is extremely difficult to accurately diagnose the disease, especially to an inexperienced doctor. Instrumental examination methods come to the rescue in unclear cases. This is an ultrasound, and x-ray studies using contrast agents, and computed tomography, and magnetic resonance.
From a collection of a detailed and complete history of the patient, where he will indicate not only all the symptoms of cholecystitis, but also tell you why they have arisen, 98% of success in making the only correct diagnosis depends. A significant role in clarifying the severity of the process is played by laboratory tests. This is a general and biochemical blood test. In the first of them, leukocytosis will increase and ESR will accelerate, and in the second, close attention should be paid to bilirubin, which also must necessarily grow. With mechanical blockage of the excretory ducts, when bile cannot leave the body naturally, the proportion of direct bilirubin, which enters the bloodstream in high concentrations, increases. Bilirubin for blood is a foreign and very toxic substance. Therefore, the tactical goal, when the patient has severe symptoms of cholecystitis in the acute stage, is to normalize the outflow of bile in order to stop the flow of bilirubin and bile acids into the blood. Still, patients themselves, as well as doctors, need to pay attention to the color of the stool. If the urine begins to darken and the feces become discolored, then this means that the disease is progressing and requires immediate treatment.