10,000 stones removed from nutritionist's gallbladder

10,000 stones removed from nutritionist's gallbladder

VIDEO URL:- https://youtu.be/ujBjCsUBan8

Sumesh Rajan

Mumbai: 18 September 2018

A nutritionist in India has learned the proverb: ‘Practice what you preach’, holds water, the hard way after more than 10000 stones were removed recently from his gallbladder.

40-years-old Dr Rajib Chowdhury is a nutritionist by profession working in the public health and hygiene department and had severe stomach pain for over one-and-a-half months. After initially ignoring the symptoms, when the pain started to become unbearable, he finally approached the doctors at the Calcutta National Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata.

“The ultrasonography done on Dr Chowdhury showed that his gallbladder was distended with hypointense signals seen in it – sludge with small calculi. It was understood that the calculi -- gallstones were causing the pain but we had no idea that the number of stones would be so high. We did a laparoscopic procedure to remove the stones,” informed Dr Manas Kumar Dutta, assistant professor of surgery whose team conducted the operation under the supervision of the surgery department head Dr Sukumar Maity.

“It was only after we cut the gallbladder did we actually realize the presence of a large number of stones. We counted 10,356 stones and stopped as we got tired,” added Dr Dutta.

The surgery on Dr Chowdhury was conducted on August 29. Though the surgery that was performed on the nutritionist is said to have taken only 40 minutes, counting the stones took a much longer time, said the doctor.

“For us surgeons, the surgery which is complex at times, is more important than the number of stones removed, irrespective whether it is just one or in thousands,” said Dr Maity.

“Dr Chowdhury was suffering from acidity and hyperlipidemia showing high cholesterol and triglyceride levels. This is mainly caused by poor food habits like eating junk foods which contain high-fat content, and other factors,” said Dr Dutta.

The patient was discharged after two days and is doing fine now, informed Dr Dutta.

Three years ago in 2015, Dr Makhanlal Saha of Debdoot Sevayan Hospital, also in Kolkata, operated on a 51-year-old-woman and is said to have removed 11,950 gallstones.