What is Your Injury?
Most patients injured during gallbladder removal surgery have suffered damage to their common bile duct. The lawyers at Schwartzapfel Truhowsky Marcus P.C. have a detailed knowledge of gallbladder surgery. From our experience, we know what caused your injury. We know that it was avoidable and fully recognize what the implications are. For that reason, we have a page devoted to this topic to help you better understand it.
The attorneys and staff of Schwartzapfel Truhowsky Marcus P.C. are committed to helping victims of laparoscopic cholecystectomy malpractice. Our attorneys have more than 150 years of combined legal experience and have handled dozens of successful medical malpractice cases. Our experience is one of the many reasons why you should contact us at at 1.800.966.4999 or fill out our online contact form for a free case evaluation.
Your Bile Duct
First, let’s go over what the bile duct does.
The common bile duct is a tube that carries bile from the liver, gallbladder and pancreas to the small intestine.
Bile produced by the liver aids in the digestion of food and is responsible for the elimination of certain waste products from the body. Bile flows out of the liver through the hepatic duct. This duct joins a duct coming from the gallbladder, called the cystic duct, to form the common bile duct. The bile duct connects to the upper part of the small intestine.
After we eat, the gallbladder contracts, forcing bile to flow through the common bile duct into the small intestine to aid in digestion of food.
Gallstones, formed in the gallbladder from bile byproducts, may get stuck in the common bile duct. This can cause severe pain, inflammation and yellowish discoloration of the skin. When this happens, your doctor may decide to remove your gallbladder.
Gallbladder Surgery and Injury
Most gallbladder removals today are performed with laparoscopic surgery that generally involves smaller incisions and a quicker recovery time than older methods. Here's a step-by-step look at the operation. But laparoscopic gallbladder removal is associated with an increased incidence of bile duct injury. In fact, it is the main serious complication of laparoscopic gallbladder removal.
About one-half million gallbladder operations are performed each year in the U.S. Most of those operations are routine. However, a 2002 article by physicians at the University of California and Oregon Health & Science University, published in the Annals of Surgery, estimated that bile duct injuries occur in one of every 1,000 laparoscopic gallbladder removals.
An injury to the bile duct can cause leakage into the abdominal cavity and even into other parts of the body. Some of the symptoms associated with this injury after a laparoscopic chlolecystectomy include:
- Nausea;
- Vomiting;
- Persistent pain;
- Stomach discomfort;
- Fever;
- Jaundice.
One or more corrective surgeries may be needed to repair this damage. The injury can also cause scarring of the duct. The scarring, in turn, can cause narrowing of the duct so the bile cannot flow to the small intestine. The bile can spill over into the patient’s blood and cause jaundice.
Legal Help: Schwartzapfel Truhowsky Marcus P.C.
The New York gallbladder surgery lawyers of Schwartzapfel Partners have handled numerous gallbladder injury cases. We understand the long-term complications you face and we have the legal experience and expertise to get you the money you’ll need to recover from your injury.
The attorneys and staff of Schwartzapfel Truhowsky Marcus P.C. are committed to helping victims of laparoscopic cholecystectomy malpractice. Our attorneys have more than 150 years of combined legal experience and have handled dozens of successful medical malpractice cases. Our experience is one of the many reasons why you should contact us at at 1.800.966.4999 or fill out our online contact form for a free case evaluation. Let our attorneys work for you!
