Newton Muthunayagam, MD
Gastroenterology
Lakewood Hospital

Q: I’ve been diagnosed with gallstones. How should they be treated?

A: Treatment of gallstones – which are hardened deposits of digestive fluid that form in your gallbladder – depends on their size, number of stones and symptoms they may cause. Gallstones that don’t give you any trouble, typically do not require treatment.

A gallstone may be as small as a grain of sand or as large as a golf ball. While some people only develop one stone, others may have many. If a gallstone blocks a bile duct, you may experience intense and sudden pain in your abdomen, shoulder blades and/or right shoulder. The pain may last several minutes to a few hours.

If you have these or any other bothersome symptoms, I suggest you make an appointment with a gastroenterologist, a physician who specializes in the treatment of digestive disorders and can help determine the best treatment for you. To accurately diagnose your problem, the physician may order various tests, such as abdominal ultrasound, computerized tomography (CT) scans, blood tests and so forth.

Lakewood Hospital, where I perform surgeries, offers a new technology that represents a significant advancement in diagnosing and treating gallstones and other digestive disorders. This minimally invasive endoscopic procedure enables us to directly look at the bile duct, pancreas and liver. Physicians who use older technology can only indirectly view these portions of the digestive system.

Conventional treatment of problematic gallstones oftentimes involves surgical removal of your gallbladder (cholecystectomy). Although you don't need your gallbladder to live and gallbladder removal doesn't affect your ability to digest food, its removal can cause diarrhea.

With this new endoscopic equipment, we typically perform gallbladder procedures on an outpatient basis. This innovative technology enables us to fragment large stones, open obstructed bile ducts and obtain biopsies in suspected tumors – most of which previously required surgery. Patients like you benefit from shorter hospital stays and better overall care.

Lakewood Hospital is one of just a few hospitals in the area offering this state-of-the-art endoscopic technology.

For more information about the procedure or about the Lakewood Hospital Digestive Health Center, call 216.227.2576.

Dr. Muthunayagam specializes in gastroenterology and practices at Lakewood Hospital.

To schedule an appointment with him or other Lakewood physicians, please call Medline, a toll-free physician referral service, at 1.866.733.6363.