I have a gallstone. What should I do about it?

Gallstones may be silent or may cause problems. The art and science of medicine relevant to the person with one or more stones is to determine which gallstones are causing a problem and which are not. Blood tests, ultrasound examination, and functional nuclear medicine biliary scans may be helpful for that determination. If a gallstone is not causing any problem, most of the time there is no need to remove the gallbladder. However, in some diabetic patients, it is best to remove a gallbladder which contains stones before a problem arises because infection from the biliary tract can be devastating to a diabetic patient. Some diabetic patients have neuropathy (derangement of various sensory or motor nerves) and cannot feel the pain that a person has with an inflamed gallbladder. For those patients, the gallbladder could become gangrenous and rupture without the person having warning symptoms. Gallbladder rupture can be fatal because it spreads infected bile throughout the abdominal cavity.