“ Normal or not following surgery?”
A family member was sent to another hospital to have gallbladder removed. The new hospital did an ERCP on day one then confirmed that it needed to be removed. During the laparoscopic procedure they determined it could not be done laparoscopically and made an incision in went into the abdomen on Thursday. Today is Saturday and they are planning to do another ERCP.
They went in with pains on the right side and passed urine that looked like cola. Test showed several gall stones. I need to know if it is normal for a person who just had gallbladder surgery with problems to get another ERCP two days after? It sounds like a lot of invasive procedures going on.
They went in with pains on the right side and passed urine that looked like cola. Test showed several gall stones. I need to know if it is normal for a person who just had gallbladder surgery with problems to get another ERCP two days after? It sounds like a lot of invasive procedures going on.
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4 Answers
This is a very complicated case. Stones may not all be removed in Surgery in with an intraoperative cholangiogram. Overweight and obesity also complicates procedures.
Typically this would be done in a situation where the surgeon is concerned about stones and/or the anatomy in the post-operative period. If the surgeon already had to convert to an open procedure then it is questionably related to a concern about the anatomy but it's difficult to tell based on the information provided.
Hard for me to comment without having all of the details of what happened, but it is possible that 2 ERCPs might be needed. The first one before surgery would be done (usually) to look for gallstones in the common bile duct. The second one after surgery might be done if there is a bile leak, which is a fairly common complication after gallbladder removal. Again, without knowing exactly what the indications for ERCP were, it is difficult for me to comment on how appropriate the tests are.
There should be both a surgeon and a gastroenterologist on the case. Ask the one who did NOT do the ERCP wht s/he thinks
