From time to time I will share some of my more difficult cases so that you understand what happens during surgery.
The case below involved a Chinese man in his 60s who suffered from gallstones and an inflamed gallbladder.
Mr C, a 61 year old Chinese man came to see me with right upper abdominal pain and high fever. When I did an ultrasound scan of the abdomen, I noted that the scan showed large gallstones and an inflamed gall bladder.
After a careful preoperative assessment, I advised him that he needed a laparoscopic cholecystectomy.
During the operation, the gallbladder was badly inflamed and had started to become gangrenous. What made it more challenging was that the gallbladder was stuck to the surrounding tissues making surgery difficult.
The gallbladder wall oozed pus and we found a fairly large gallstone jammed into the neck of the gall bladder!
While it was rather challenging, we finally managed to carefully dissect and remove the gallbladder laparoscopically without conversion to an open procedure. This is always good news for the patient as laparascopic surgery possesses many more benefits compared to open surgery.
I am happy to report the laparoscopic surgery did Mr C a world of good. He recovered well from his operation without any complications.