﻿ Gallstones Symptoms, Causes, Treatment - What are gallstones? (Continued) - MedicineNet


What are gallstones? (Continued)

Once in the gallbladder, bile is concentrated by the removal (absorption) of water. During a meal, the muscle that makes up the wall of the gallbladder contracts and squeezes the concentrated bile in the gallbladder back through the cystic duct into the common duct and then into the intestine. (Concentrated bile is much more effective for digestion than the un-concentrated bile that goes from the liver straight into the intestine.) The timing of gallbladder contraction-during a meal-allows the concentrated bile from the gallbladder to mix with food.

Gallstones usually form in the gallbladder; however, they also may form anywhere there is bile; in the intrahepatic, hepatic, common bile, and cystic ducts.

Gallstones also may move about in the bile, for example, from the gallbladder into the cystic or the common duct.

Reviewed on 4/11/2014

