Treatment for cholecystitis most often involves a hospital stay to control the swelling and irritation, called inflammation, in your gallbladder. Sometimes, surgery is needed.
At the hospital, treatments to control your symptoms may include:
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Fasting. You may not be able to eat or drink at first to take stress off your inflamed gallbladder.
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Fluids through a vein in your arm. This treatment helps prevent loss of body fluids, called dehydration.
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Antibiotics to fight infection. You might need these if your gallbladder is infected.
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Pain medicines. These can help control pain until the inflammation in your gallbladder is relieved.
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Procedure to remove stones. You may have a procedure called an endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP). This procedure uses dye to make the bile ducts show up during imaging. Then a healthcare professional can use instruments to remove stones blocking the bile ducts or cystic duct.
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Gallbladder drainage. Sometimes, gallbladder drainage, called cholecystostomy, can remove infection. You might have this procedure if you can't have surgery to remove your gallbladder. To drain the gallbladder, a healthcare professional can go through the skin on the belly. This method is called percutaneous drainage. Or the health professional could pass a scope through the mouth, called endoscopic drainage.
Your symptoms are likely to get better in 2 to 3 days. But gallbladder inflammation often returns. In time, most people with cholecystitis need surgery to remove the gallbladder.
Gallbladder removal surgery
The procedure to remove the gallbladder is called a cholecystectomy. Most often, this is a minimally invasive procedure called laparoscopic cholecystectomy. This type of surgery uses a few tiny cuts called incisions in your belly. An open procedure, in which a long incision is made in your belly, is rarely needed.
The timing of surgery depends on how bad your symptoms are and your overall risk of complications during and after surgery. If your surgical risk is low, you might have surgery during your hospital stay.
Once your gallbladder is removed, bile flows from your liver into your small intestine, rather than being stored in your gallbladder. You can still digest food without a gallbladder.