Gallstone disease overview

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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]

Overview

Gallstones is the presence of gallstones (cholelithiasis) within the gallbladder. Gallstones are crystalline bodies formed within the body by accretion or concretion of normal or abnormal bile components. is Gallstones can occur anywhere within the biliary tree, including the gallbladder and the common bile duct. Obstruction of the common bile duct is choledocholithiasis; obstruction of the biliary tree can cause jaundice; obstruction of the outlet of the pancreatic exocrine system can cause pancreatitis. Cholelithiasis is the presence of stones in the gallbladder—chole- means "bile", lithia means "stone", and -sis means "process".

The characteristics of gallstones are various. Independent of appearance, however, gallstones from animals are valuable on the market.

Gallstones are, oddly, a valuable by-product of meat processing, fetching up to US$32 per gram in their use as a purported antipyretic and antidote in the herbal medicine of some cultures, particularly in China. The finest gallstones tend to be sourced from old dairy cows, which are called Niu-Huang (yellow thing of oxen) in Chinese. Those got from dogs, called Gou-Bao (treasure of dogs) in Chinese, are also used today. Much as in the manner of diamond mines, slaughterhouses carefully scrutinize offal department workers for gallstone theft.