Symptoms and treatments for cholecystitis at home

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

Cholecystitis is a disease that develops in a person with inflammation of the gallbladder. The main signs of the disease are considered to be prolonged soreness in the area of the right side, which can increase with a change in body position.

Every year the number of the disease only increases, in addition, due to the lack of proper treatment, patients form gallstones.

It is worth noting that after 50 years, the disease is more common in women than in men. We will consider the main symptoms of cholecystitis in adults, and also talk about the main methods of treating this ailment.

The main causes of the development of the disease

There are several reasons due to which a person experiences a malfunction of the gallbladder, which leads to the development of an inflammatory process:

1. Stones … This is a fairly common cause of the development of cholecystitis, since the formations damage the walls of the organ, thereby causing not only irritation, but also inflammation.
2. Improper nutrition … If you do not follow the rules of nutrition, then there is a great risk of encountering such a problem, cholecystitis develops due to the frequent consumption of hot drinks and dishes, spicy and very fatty, alcohol abuse.
3. Stress … With psycho-emotional overstrain, this ailment can manifest itself after a while.
4. Heredity. This reason is not very common, but nevertheless heredity plays a big role here.
5. Congenital or acquired abnormalities. Most often, the incorrect structure of the bladder leads to the development of an ailment, mainly cholecystitis manifests itself with a congenital ailment, but the pathology can be acquired. Anomalies include constrictions, kinks, and blockages of the gallbladder ducts.
6. Hormonal imbalance. Cholecystitis can be caused by taking hormonal contraceptives, as well as special medicines that are prescribed to women during IVF.
7. Allergic reaction. The inflammatory process can be a complication that develops against the background of a prolonged allergic reaction.
8. Medicines. There are drugs that can provoke the formation of gallstones, these include Cyclosporin and Octreotide.
9. Immunostimulants … Some immune stimulants can lead to an inflammatory process in the bladder.
10. Weight loss. With a sharp weight loss, a malfunction of the digestive system may occur, which leads to an insufficient outflow of bile and an inflammatory process.
11. Infectious diseases. Various parasites, viruses and bacteria can enter the gallbladder from the main site of the lesion, thereby causing inflammation.

Cholecystitis has many different symptoms that require timely treatment in adults of any age. The inflammatory process may not affect the functioning of the organ in any way, but in some cases there is a "shutdown of the functions" of the bladder.

Classification

Most often, patients are admitted to the hospital with an exacerbation of the disease, which has already become chronic. Pathology can be divided into separate types, all of them can differ in the clinical picture of development and the characteristics of the course:

• Lightweight form. The disease passes into the stage of exacerbation and manifests itself in relapses no more than twice a year. Biliary colic may occur about four times a year.
• Medium form. An exacerbation can occur from two to four times a year, while the clinical signs are more pronounced and acute.
• Severe form. In this case, exacerbations occur more than four times a year, while cholecystitis can be accompanied by various complications.

Since the inflammatory process occurs for certain reasons, various types of ailment can be distinguished:

1. Bacterial … Cholecystitis in humans develops because pathogenic bacteria enter the organ.
2. Viral. The organ is attacked by various types of viruses, leading to inflammation and symptoms.
3. Parasitic. This should include various helminthic invasions, for example, ascariasis, opisthorchiasis or giardiasis. All of these parasites can provoke inflammation.
4. Immunogenic. May occur in those people who suffer from autoimmune diseases.
5. Allergic. In this case, cholecystitis is a complication that develops on the basis of long-term food allergy.
6. Enzymatic … It is provoked by an insufficient amount of special enzymes necessary for proper digestion. Lack of enzymes leads to an increase in the load on the digestive organ.
7. Unexplained etiology. In this case, doctors cannot accurately determine the reason why the disease began to develop.

If the disease constantly recurs, this leads to the fact that bile stagnates in the bile, which ultimately causes the development of stones.

For this reason, experts distinguish two forms of cholecystitis:

1. Noncalculous … In this case, although an inflammatory process occurs in the organ, it is provoked exclusively by pathogenic microorganisms that were able to penetrate the human body. In this form, stones are not formed.
2. Calculus. Such a disease begins to develop if cholecystitis progresses for a long time without proper treatment. In this case, the properties of bile change, which leads to the formation of salts and their deposition in the organ. Thus, stones are formed, which can range in size from one millimeter to several centimeters.

Each of these forms of cholecystitis has certain symptoms, and in order to prescribe treatment, it is necessary to determine the form of the disease and the reason why it began to progress.

Main symptoms

When an inflammatory process occurs in the gallbladder, the patient may not always understand that it is developing cholecystitis. Quite often, there are cases when the symptoms of cholecystitis in adults appear slowly, which is why treatment is not prescribed on time.

At the first stage of the inflammatory process, the signs of the disease practically do not manifest themselves, there may be slight discomfort that occurs immediately after eating.

Attacks of dull pain occur a little later, at first it occurs after eating fried and fatty foods, as well as after carbonated drinks and cold.

In addition, other pronounced symptoms develop that arise with the development of the disease:

• sharp and severe attacks of pain that occur at a monitored frequency;
• painful sensations can spread to other parts of the body, patients often complain of pain in the back or in the scapula on the right side of the body;
• the elderly note bouts of pain on the left side of the chest, soreness is also observed behind the sternum, reflex angina pectoris may develop;
• body temperature may rise slightly, or the indicators will immediately be above 38 degrees;
• attacks of nausea and vomiting may develop, there is a taste of bitterness in the mouth;
• on palpation, the doctor can observe that the patient has tension in the abdomen, as well as painful sensations from the right rib;
• in the absence of treatment, after a few days the disease begins to progress, which leads to an increase in the liver in size;
• in some cases, the patient's blood pressure decreases, yellowing of the skin and mucous membranes occurs.

All these symptoms can be significantly aggravated if factors such as:

• long stay in a sitting position;
• severe hypothermia of the body;
• being in a stressful state.

The main signs of catarrhal cholecystitis

The catarrhal form of cholecystitis has certain symptoms in adults, and before prescribing treatment, it is important to identify the exact form of the disease. According to experts, catarrhal cholecystitis does not cause acute pain, and also manifests itself with minimal symptoms.

To identify the presence of an ailment, a biochemical blood test should be taken, if the ESR is increased, this will indicate inflammation. If a person ignores the catarrhal form, then after a while it can turn into purulent.

Symptoms of the catarrhal form:

• the appearance of puffiness on the right side of the side, as the gallbladder increases in size;
• pain attacks are localized in the area of the right side and are of a short-term nature;
• the patient feels weak and drowsy;
• body temperature may rise, but not significantly.

This form is easy, so it is not difficult to carry out treatment. In almost 90% of cases, the patient recovers completely after complex therapy with medicines and diet. If you start treatment on time, you can avoid the development of complications.

The main symptoms of purulent cholecystitis

This is a more dangerous form of the disease, which not only worsens the patient's condition, but can also lead to death if the patient is not provided with timely assistance. In this case, a biochemical blood test is performed, which shows a significant increase in leukocytes and ESR in the patient's blood, this will indicate a serious inflammatory process and the formation of pus in the digestive organ.

On palpation, the patient feels acute attacks of pain, this is due to the fact that the walls of the bile thicken and become thicker.

Additionally, the patient can observe the following signs:

• body temperature rises to 39 degrees, while fever is difficult to eliminate;
• the severity of the painful syndrome increases, and its duration also becomes longer in time;
• touching the right side leads to an acute attack of pain, the patient cannot lie on his side or stomach.

If the patient is not able to start treatment of this form on time, it quickly develops into a chronic one, in which case the organ will never be able to heal completely.

For this reason, at the very first symptoms of cholecystitis in adults, you should consult a doctor for a prescription of treatment.

Drug treatment

When the symptoms are identified, and the doctor accurately diagnoses the patient with cholecystitis, the patient is prescribed treatment, which includes the use of certain drugs and adherence to a diet.

We will talk in more detail about the treatment of the disease with medicines:

1. Antibiotics Ceftriaxone is usually given, but the doctor may choose another antibacterial agent of his choice.
2. Choleretic. You can purchase preparations based on natural ingredients or containing chemical compounds. Allohol and Holenzym have proven themselves well.
3. Antispasmodics … Preparations for spasms perfectly help to eliminate painful sensations, for this you can use Papaverine, the remedy is used twice a day.
4. Medicines to restore the work of the gallbladder. The most popular should be attributed to Dispatalin, the remedy is taken before meals three times a day.
5. Pain relievers … Analgin in this case may not have the necessary effect, for this reason, doctors recommend using Ketorol or Nise.

It is possible to start treatment of cholecystitis in adults only after the doctor identifies all the symptoms and makes a diagnosis. Do not self-medicate.

Possible complications

If the symptoms of cholecystitis in an adult were identified, and treatment was not prescribed on time, this can lead to negative consequences. The inflammatory process goes to the bile ducts, which causes the temperature to rise to 40 degrees, as a result cholangitis develops.

Reactive hepatitis is considered an equally dangerous complication, in which case the inflammation goes to the liver.

The organ grows in size, the liver dysfunctions. Pericholecystitis is manifested by acute pains that are localized throughout the abdomen, since inflammation affects all the walls of the bladder.