Before Gallbladder Surgery at Melbourne Gallbladder Centre (2024)

Diet forGallstonePatients

If certain fatty foods have triggered your attacks of pain, you should avoid those. In general, you will be better off if you adopt a low fat diet. This will not get rid of your gallstones, but may reduce the severity and frequency of your attacks of pain. Here are some tips:

• Eat less
• Eat only when hungry; stop eating when you are full
• Eat mainly plants; less meat
• Eat fish or poultry in preference to red meat, as red meat contains more fat
• Avoid dairy and egg
• Eat home cooked food (where you can control what goes in, rather than purchased or processed foods)
• Trim all fat and skin off meat when cooking
• When cooking vegetables or meat, try to boil, steam, grill, bake or shallow-fry in a non-stick pan rather than deep-fry or cook in a richsauce
• When baking cakes, half of the butter can usually be replaced by zero fat yogurt
• When buying food, look at the fat content and opt for low fat version
• Cut down on oily foods, such asdeep-fried food, cheesy dishes

If you get an attack of biliary pain

For a mild attack, try Paracetamol or Ibuprofen (assuming you have no allergies to either of these drugs and no asthma) as well as some anti-acid medication (for example Gaviscon or Omeprazole). Buscopan may help too. If the pain is very severe to start with or does not settle with these medications, please seek urgent medical help. Please remember - just because you have gallstones does not mean you cannot have other problems like angina or acid reflux.

Inflamed Gallbladder& Gallbladder Surgery

Mr Karametos willdiscuss this with you duringconsultation. If your attack of acute cholecystitis has started only in the last 7 days, and the diagnosis has been made promptly, then it may be reasonable to proceed immediately to an operation. But with each passing day, the tissues around the gall bladder can become more inflamed and “sticky”, and it may then be safer to wait for 4-6 weeks and let the inflammation settle before doing the cholecystectomy.

Gallbladder Surgery during Pregnancy

Here are a few general guidelines about surgery during pregnancy (other than obstetric operations):

• Elective (non-urgent) operations that can be safely postponed, should be postponed until after delivery.
• If possible, non-urgent surgery should be performed in the second trimester (i.e. months 4,5 and 6).
• A pregnant woman should never be denied emergency surgery for life-threatening conditions, regardless of where she is in the course of her pregnancy.

Your obstetrician will be involved in your care.

Pre-Operative Instructions

Prior to your gallbladder surgery, Mr Karametos will spend time with you to explain the procedure andcompleteSurgery Consent Form during consultation. Ouroffice staff will thenprovide you with the general Pre/ Post- Operative Instructions to take home. Please do read thisdocumentcarefullybefore the surgery, you may also download acopy:pre___post_operative_instructions_[new].pdf. Please feel free to call us within businesshours on (03) 9857 3600should you have any otherquestions.

Hospital Admission Forms
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You can complete the hard copy which our staff provides and submit to hospital via mail or in person, Alternatively, you may complete this online. eAdmission forms need to be completed at least 24 hours prior to theprocedure.Please follow the links below to complete your admissions form:

Knox Hospital eAdmissions:
http://www.knoxprivatehospital.com.au/index.php/patients/eadmissions-registratio

Mitcham Hospital Online Admissions:
http://www.mitchamprivate.com.au/For-Patients/Online-Admission-Form

Holmesglen Hospital Online Admissions:
https://holmesglenprivatehospital.com.au/patients/eadmissions

Peninsula Hospital Online Admissions:
https://www.peninsulaph.com.au/For-Patients/Pre-Admission