On November 3, Can Tho General Hospital stated it had successfully conducted surgery to remove thousands of gallstones from the patient.

On November 1, the man was brought to the hospital because of a stomachache. After examination, the patient was diagnosed with acute cholecystitis due to many stones in the gallbladder and was prescribed emergency laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

According to his relatives, one year ago, when the patient was in Vietnam, he had severe stomachache and was hospitalized. The doctors then said he suffered from acute pancreatitis due to gallbladder stones. Emergency surgery was prescribed, but the patient was afraid of surgery, so he chose to be treated with drugs. After 10 days, the pain disappeared and he was discharged.

In March, he left Vietnam for Japan to work as a guest worker. He regularly felt dull abdominal pain and suffered from slow digestion, but he just took medicine.

Recently, the pain became unbearable and he had no other choice than hospitalization. The medical examination found that his gallbladder contained many gallstones. The company where he worked suggested that he should return to Vietnam to have surgery, because the operation in Japan would be very expensive.

During the operation at Can Tho General Hospital, surgeons found that his gallbladder was acutely inflamed, distended, and edematous. After one hour, the laparoscopic gallbladder surgery ended successfully. The gallbladder was found containing pus-like fluid and more than 3,200 stones.

La Van Phu, Head of the Department of General Surgery, recommended that patients with gallbladder stones should have surgery when pain appears. If patients cannot receive timely operation, the problem may lead to life-threatening complications of infection, necrotizing inflammation or acute pancreatitis.

Prior to that, a similar case was found in mid-2023. A female patient came to Saint Paul Hospital after a long period of suffering abdominal pain.

According to Tran Kien Quyet, head of the Digestive Surgery Department, the patient was diagnosed with gallbladder stones causing inflammation and was scheduled for surgery.

The surgeons were surprised when discovering thousands of small stones contained in the gallbladder.

This is a disease which progresses quietly with no clear symptoms initially.

Linh Giao