The patient, a man in his 70s, had abdominal pain serious enough to send him to a VA Pittsburgh Healthcare hospital. Dr. Daniel Hall, a surgeon who met with the patient, explained that pancreatitis can be fairly mild, as in this case, or severe enough to cause death. Recovery usually requires five to seven days, some of them in a hospital, during which the stone passes or a doctor uses a flexible scope to remove the blockage. But “because it can be life-threatening, after patients recover, we usually take out the gall bladder to prevent its happening again,” Dr. Hall said. When done with a laparoscope to avoid large incisions, it’s usually an outpatient procedure.

Source: New York Times December 13, 2019 19:41 UTC