upper abdominal pain kidney
I got an abdominal u/s done and it says my common bile duct is at its upper normal limits. What’s that mean?
It says the CBD is at .6 cm. It also says I have a 2 cm gall stone, as well as a 3.1 cm cyst on the left upper pole of my kidney. I’ve known about the gall stone for at least 5 years. I don’t get attacks from it. I had the u/s done because 5 times this month I’ve gotten this weird lump feeling / tight pain on the middle right side of my upper abdomen. Otherwise that area usually feels sore or bruised. What does all of this mean? I was referred to a general surgeon but won’t see him for 2 weeks.
Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.
If you take a group of people who appear to be healthy, and measure the width of their common bile ducts, you will get a range, say from 0.4cm to 0.6cm. This range is then used as the “normal range” for common bile duct width. (Actually, often it’s the range that encompasses two standard deviations from the mean, but you don’t need to worry about the technicality.)
Your measurement (0.6cm) is at the upper limit of this range, which means exactly what it says — some healthy people share your measurement, but others have lower readings.
For your information, up to 0.6cm is considered “normal” (or “acceptable” or “non-diseased”, whichever terminology makes you sleep better at night) for people who still have their gall bladder. After cholecystectomy (gall bladder removal), the common bile duct is usually bigger, so up to 0.8cm is considered “normal” (or “acceptable” or “non-diseased”).
Why do doctors bother measuring the width of the common bile duct? Well, if a gall stone were to move from the gall bladder (where it does not cause trouble) into the bile duct, it can get stuck at a narrow point near the pancreas. This will block the flow of bile, causing the common bile duct to become distended (bigger than 0.6cm in size)
The blockage of bile flow can lead to problems such as obstructive jaundice or even ascending cholangitis, so doctors check the size of the common bile duct as an early warning.
Simple, no?
As for your symptoms, wait for your surgeon. After all, that’s what you are paying (or somebody is paying) him/her for. Advices given on Yahoo Answers can often be wrong and misleading — you get what you paid for….
woman removes kidney stone with mouth
