Medications helpful in dissolving stones in the gallbladder can be administered to dissolve gallstones, but they can take years to work.
Gallstones are hard, rock-crystal-like deposits that form inside the gallbladder. Their size is quite variable, so they can be small (like a grain of sand), or reach the size of a golf ball.
In reference to the causes of gallstones, we must take into account the existence of two main types of stones: stones made of cholesterol (the most common), or stones made of bilirubin (which develop when red blood cells are destroyed).
Although gallstones can be hereditary, they tend to be more common in women, as well as in people over 40 years of age, although certain health conditions or disorders can predispose to their formation (such as diabetes, cirrhosis or rapid loss of weight). And they become in fact one of the main causes to remove the gallbladder.
As far as the symptoms of gallstones are concerned, they tend to be diverse, so that it is usual that even people who have stones in their gallbladder do not feel any symptoms and their diagnosis is made by chance after performing an abdominal ultrasound.
Can gallstones dissolve?
Currently there are different useful treatments to eliminate stones in the gallbladder.
One of the most common is surgery, especially the so-called laparoscopic cholecystectomy, consisting of making smaller surgical incisions, which allow a faster recovery.
As far as the possibility of dissolving gallstones is concerned, this is possible thanks to the administration of two drugs: chenodeoxycholic acid (CKDA) or ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), which especially helps to dissolve cholesterol gallstones.
However, one of their main disadvantages is that they are treatments that can even take two years or more to take effect, while the stones can appear again once the treatment is finished.
