What Causes Upper Abdominal And Back Pain After Gallbladder Removal?

Posted on Sat, 1 Mar 2014

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Sat, 1 Mar 2014 Answered on

Fri, 28 Mar 2014 Last reviewed on

Question : I had my gallbladder removed a year ago because of gallstones. I was hurting from my upper abdomen through to my back. From time to time, I still have pain. I had a endoscopic done and I do have GERDS. I haven't been faithful taking my Prilosec but I've started back taking it. I also had my pancreas, liver, and kidneys checked a year ago and everything was fine. I've been experiencing this pain for about 3 years total. Trying to figure out why I'm hurting even though it comes and goes.

Answered by Dr. Ashish Verma (5 hours later)

Brief Answer: it can be due to GERDS Detailed Answer: Hi XXXXXXX Thanks for writing to HCM. This is Dr. Ashish Verma, a general surgeon, answering to your query. This pain of your can be from two things...gastritis and pancreatitis. Also the pain going to your back goes more in favour of pancreatitis. But as you said that it was checked a year ago and was normal...so we are left with gastritis only...as you were not taking the medicines regularly, so. The thing with GERDS is that here your lower esophageal sphincter is lax, leading to reflux of gastric acid to esophagus... causing pain. So, you need to take medicine for it life long...the medicine is not for the sphincter...it cant be cured by drugs, that needs surgery only...medicine is to decrease the acid secretion... Or what else you can do is diet modification... no tea, no coffee, no soda drinks, no chocolates, no spicy and fatty foods...as these all increase the acid production and/or relax the sphincter. Hope that i have answered to all your queries. If you have further queries, i will be glad to answer them. Regards Dr. Ashish Verma

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Yogesh D