Bile Duct Damage during Laprscopic Gall Bladder Surgery
- From: clgregg@xxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 03 Oct 2007 00:14:34 -0000
My 20 year-old son was diagnosed with gall stones back in August. In
mid-September, the surgeon said he would do a laproscopic procedure
and my son would be back to playing sports in about two weeks. It was
not thought to be an emergency so he let us decide when we wanted to
do the surgery. We were going to wait until the end of October. Two
days later, however, he had a bad gall bladder attack with two days of
vomiting. The surgeon decided to admit him for iv hydration and do the
surgery the next day.
The surgery took three times as long as was expected because the
surgeon nicked the common bile duct during the repair. I have been
reading that bile duct damage is three times more likely with
laproscopic surgery than with open surgery. The surgeon never told me
that ahead of time.
He put in a t-tube to help with the repair of the duct and a JP drain
(?) to drain blood and fluid from the surgical site. He had to stay in
the hospital for a total of 11 days (one day pre-op, day of surgery,
and 9 days post)! For a few days his liver and pancreatic enzymes were
elevated. They slowly began to get lower, but never returned to
normal. After day 6, they removed the iv and he started to show signs
of dehydration so they put the iv back in. On day 6, the doctor
clamped the t-tube to see if the bile would drain normally.
By day 10 post-op, he was eating well, and his labs were close to
normal so they released him. This morning, day 12 post-op, he woke up
with severe pain at the site of the t-tube and the jp drain was
putting out twice the amount of fluid and clots. He took his pain meds
and slept for a few hours. When we woke up, he was still in pain and
the bulb at the end of the jp drain had fluid that looked like bile.
We went to see the surgeon. He said the fluid was indeed, bilious
fluid. He unclamped the t-tube and said that the pain may be caused by
pressure building up in the bile duct. Now we are back to two drainage
tubes, one with a bag to collect bile and the other with a bulb to
drain fluid and he is still in pain, although it is not as frequent as
it was during the day today.
Has anyone experienced anything like this? I've read about
complications if the damage isn't found during surgery, but not if
it's found and "repaired" during surgery. What should I expect in
terms of long-term progress and the rest of the recovery period? The
surgeon told me that the worse-case scenario would be that they would
need to go in and do a complete reconstruction of the bile duct. I'm
wondering what are some of the possible scenarios that aren't that
drastic. Was this a risk that the surgeon should have explained to me?
If the bile duct is leaking fluid that the jp drain is catching does
that mean that the repair is not going to hold long-term? Should I
seek a second opinion and should I talk to an attorney?
Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me!
.
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