Cholecystitis

Cholecystitis (KO-leh-sis-TY-tiss) is inflammation in your gallbladder, the small, pear-shaped organ that lives under your liver and stores the bile your liver makes. Your gallbladder sends bile to your small intestine after you eat to help digest fats. It sends and receives bile through tiny pipelines called bile ducts. An infection or obstruction in your gallbladder or the bile ducts connected to it can cause inflammation, pain and swelling inside it.

What are the different types of cholecystitis?

Gallbladder inflammation can be:

• Acute (sudden and urgent).
• Chronic (slow and longstanding).
• Calculous (related to gallstones).
• Acalculous (not related to gallstones).

An inflamed gallbladder can be an immediate response to an urgent problem, or a slow response to a long-term problem. This is the difference between acute cholecystitis and chronic cholecystitis.

Gallstones are usually the cause of both chronic and acute cholecystitis. So, most cases are “calculous”. Healthcare providers use “acalculous” to distinguish cholecystitis that’s not related to gallstones.

How common is cholecystitis?

About 15% of the world’s population has gallstones, and about 20% of these will have complications from gallstones, which include cholecystitis. Gallstones cause 95% of all cholecystitis cases.