Shocked doctors remove nearly 2,000 gallstones from a 60-year-old woman’s stomach after she went to the hospital with constipation and tummy pains
Doctors in Thailand were shocked to find almost 2,000 gallstones in the stomach of a woman complaining of stomach pain.
The unnamed 60-year-old sought help earlier this month. She was constipated and had a tight feeling in her tummy.
Medics in Nong Khai – on the border of Laos – conducted a scan and found hundreds of gallstones inside her gallbladder.
Doctors were unsure exactly how many were inside the woman’s stomach until they removed them.
After the 40-minute procedure, they counted the stones. The team claimed to have removed 1,898 of the lumps, all of which were different sizes.
It is not quite a world record amount. In 1987, surgeons in Sussex removed 23,530 gallstones from an 85-year-old woman’s stomach.
Doctors at the Thabo Crown Prince Hospital operated on the 60-year-old yesterday, according to local reports.
They used a laparoscope, a long and thin tube with a small camera to look inside her stomach and find the gallstones
Wattana Pareesri, the director of the hospital, claimed they had never encountered such a high number of gallstones before.
He said: ‘The examination revealed she was having gallstones but we didn’t know how many there were until the operation.
‘Gallstones can be caused by excess cholesterol in the system. It is best for everyone to do check-ups because these stones could lead to many serious symptoms.’
Gallstones are lumps of sold material that form in the gallbladder. They can resemble grains of sand or large pebbles.
