Gallbladder surgery not always necessary for patients with stones: Study

Pain relief was no better or worse with the restrictive criteria than it was with usual care.

Many patients with gallstones and abdominal pain don’t feel better after a procedure to remove their gallbladder, and a recent study suggests this surgery may not always be necessary.

Treatment guidelines in many countries recommend that doctors perform a minimally invasive operation known as a laparoscopic cholecystectomy to remove the gallbladder when patients have abdominal pain associated with gallstones. But in non-emergency cases, there’s no consensus on how doctors should choose which patients might be better off with nonsurgical treatments and lifestyle changes.

For the current study, researchers tested whether patients with gallbladder conditions being treated at outpatient clinics might have better