When a patient has gall stones, the symptoms can be mild to severe. The gall bladder may have stones in it for years and the patient may go on without noticing. When a stone moves through the common bile duct it can cause a lot of pain. If the stone blocks the common bile duct; it can cause pain in the right side of the abdomen, fever, and jaundice.
If not properly treated it could even be life-threatening. In today’s world of medical advancements, the gall bladder can be removed by a procedure that uses four small incisions that enable the surgeons to see inside the body with a camera and then use instruments to disconnect the gall bladder and remove it through the four openings.
Potential for Injury During Minimally Invasive Surgery
There have been cases that this procedure has lead to injuries to the common bile duct and there may be some reasons to consider doing the open gall bladder removal surgery instead. Certain indicators that the surgeon should be familiar with will enable them to suggest the right course of action.
When performing the minimally invasive surgery; a surgeon might find that there is a tumor on the gall bladder, liver, or bile duct and switch over to the older technique. Perhaps the bile duct has been damaged by the stone passing and using the new technique with its record of sometimes leaving a common bile duct injury should not always be the only option considered.
With these procedures being more common and being preferred due to less cost for recovery time in the hospital and rehabilitation of the patient, the older procedure may not be given enough thought in certain cases. The attorney with experience handling gallbladder error medical malpractice cases should be well aware of these and other factors that can lead to a botched gall bladder procedure.
