Should I have my gallbladder removed? And should it be done at the same time as my sleeve surgery?

Part of the preoperative studies is a series of abdominal sonograms, in case of finding stones in the gallbladder, the surgical time would be used to perform cholecystectomy. This is done because one of the main causes of the formation of these stones in the gallbladder is rapid weight loss, which occurs after bariatric or metabolic surgery.

However, your doctor may also present you with the option of waiting for a second surgery to perform the cholecystectomy, which is possible.

therefore, you should be alert in case of onset of symptoms related to gallstones, such as (although not exclusively) pain in the abdomen after eating fatty foods, feeling of fullness after eating regardless of the amount, diarrhea after eating fatty foods and others. although it is possible to have gallbladder stones without having symptoms at the time of surgery,

We routinely do preoperative ultrasounds on all of our patients.  If you have gallstones we usually recommend you have it removed at the time of the sleeve gastrectomy surgery if it is straight forward to remove. Sometimes patients with morbid obesity have their gallbladder buried in the liver and it is not safe to remove at the time of the sleeve gastrectomy. In these cases we would leave the gallbladder and worry about it another day if you had symptoms.  About 98% of the time if you have gallstones we would remove it at the time of the sleeve gastrectomy.

Are you having symptoms? If you are having serious gall bladder pain, then it may be wise to remove it at the same time.  If your symptoms are mild or non, I recommend you do not remove it at the same time.  Bariatric surgery can have potential complications, why do you want to add another procedure unnecessarily? Removing a gall bladder in an obese individual can be very difficult.  If possible, have the sleeve and when you lose a substantial amount of weight then have your gall bladder removed.  It will be so much easier then.  Don't add unnecessary risk.