What Is A Porcelain Gallbladder? Its Causes, Symptoms And Treatment

Porcelain gallbladder can be described as a rare disorder, in which the walls of your gallbladder calcify or harden to resemble porcelain ceramic. It is a medical condition that usually occurs because of gallstones that inflame the gallbladder on a regular basis. You may need to undergo surgery if your gallbladder gets infected or inflamed by several gallstones or in case you develop porcelain gallbladder.

Symptoms Of Porcelain Gallbladder

Many people do not even realize that they are suffering from a porcelain gallbladder, mainly because they do not experience any specific symptoms that point towards this condition.

However, you may suspect that you have a porcelain gallbladder, in case you experience symptoms like –

  • Yellowing of the skin and the whites of your eyes (jaundice).
  • Pain in the abdominal area, which worsens after you eat.
  • Loss of appetite and weight loss.
  • Nausea and vomiting.

The first symptom of porcelain gallbladder is usually jaundice, which is followed by severe abdominal pain and then vomiting. In case you happen to experience any of these symptoms, make it a point to visit your doctor immediately. However, it is quite possible that you do not experience any of the porcelain gallbladder symptoms at all.

This condition is often detected incidentally when people undergo tests of the abdominal area for various reasons. The tests that help detect porcelain gallbladder include –

  • Plain radiograms.
  • X-rays.
  • Computed tomography (CT) scans.
  • Ultrasounds or sonograms.

What Causes Porcelain Gallbladder?

Porcelain gallbladder usually occurs due to a buildup of gallstones. Normally, your gallbladder stores bile, an acid that helps your body digest all the food you have eaten. The bile is produced by your liver and then transferred to the gallbladder, through a cystic duct. Then, your gallbladder stores and passes the required amount of bile into the small intestines. For any reason, if the bile does not break down the fat properly, the excess cholesterol in your body can crystallize into gallstones.

The formation of gallstones in the gallbladder limits the flow of fluids in the digestive system. This could lead to a condition known as cholecystitis, which is an infection or an inflammation in the entire gallbladder. If this condition goes unchecked, it could cause the lining of your gallbladder to thicken, thereby resulting in porcelain bladder. Though the overall incidence of porcelain gallbladder is less than 1%, women are five times more likely to develop this condition than men.

Porcelain Gallbladder Treatment

At the moment, the only treatment options recommended for porcelain gallbladder is a cholecystectomy. In this surgery your entire gallbladder will be removed, to reduce the risks of gallbladder cancer. You could either go in for the standard procedure called the laproscopic cholecystectomy or an older, more invasive procedure known as the open cholecystectomy.

Studies are still on, to investigate the correlation between a porcelain gallbladder and gallbladder cancer. Recent studies have highlighted that the two conditions are not as closely related as medical experts previously believed.