According to gallbladder definition, it is a small gland at the base of liver. Its main job is to assist in the emulsification, digestion and absorption of fats in food. The liver secretes the bile and transfers it to gall bladder for temporary storage.
Another gallbladder function is to concentrate the alkaline fluid that contains salts, pigments, fats and about 85% watery component.
Recent gallbladder information suggests that this structure in an adult human would measure about 8 x 4 cm or a bid more. It secretes bile juice to facilitate digestive processes of oily diet. The organ has divisions into three parts, which are neck, body and fundus. The neck of gall bladder establishes a connection with liver through common bile duct and transcends its secretions through it. Fundus appears at the opposite end of this pear-shaped organ, while body lies in its proximity away from the neck.
Bile Juice Secretion & Storage: The liver secretes the bile juice and pours it into gallbladder. The gallbladder then stores the bile juice for some time.
As the need arises, the bile juice enters into the duodenum of small intestine. This commonly happens after taking food that is rich in cholesterol or other lipids.
Breakdown and Digestion: Do you know the bile from the gall bladder emulsifies fat molecules? As a result, the fat digesting enzymes, like lipase, can carry out their breakdown and digestion effectively.
Bile Concentration: Here is another of the interesting facts about the gallbladder in the digestive system. That is, the biliary vesicle achieves about 10 times concentration of bile.
Formation of Gallstones: Frequent and prolonged intake of fatty foods, would result in excessive concentration and hardening of bile juice. It will, in turn, result in the formation of gallbladder stones.
Gallbladder Removal: Removing gallbladder does not interfere much with fat metabolism and there direct secretion of bile into the intestine.
Inflammatory disorder: Inflammatory disorder of the gallbladder is also common among people who have been suffering from chronic infection of typhoid.
The gallstone are usually small, hardened deposits that measure not more than a few millimeters. That is why, in most of the cases, they do not cause any severe symptoms and go without detection for years. At the later stage, however, they lead to pain, infection and inflammation of the organ.The gallstones can be of two major types, i.e. pigment stones and cholesterol stones. The pigment stones result from the accumulation of calcium bilirubinate – a chemical produced after the breakdown of red blood cells. In the latter case, accumulation of cholesterol is the sole cause for the formation of such stones.
There are usually very rare cases of this type of cancer. However, there are chances for its spreading to other parts of the body. In that case, the disease becomes fatal. If there is timely discovery of the gallbladder cancer, it is easily treatable. But, unfortunately, it is one of the gallbladder facts that in most of the cases, the cancer is diagnosed at a very later stage. The primary reason behind delay in the diagnosis is that such type of cancer does not cause any obvious signs or symptoms soon after its onset.
