 Hi, I am Dr. K. Hemant Kumar, Consultant Surgical Gastroenterologist, Manipal Hospital, Old Air Port Road, Bangalore. Today, I would like to talk on gallbladder stones. It is one of the very common surgical conditions which we see in our day to day practice. I had chosen this topic because it is very common and it is increasing in the incidence nowadays. Gallbladder stone in the next few minutes, I will take you through the reasons, the treatment options and there are certain myths which are associated with gallbladder stones. Gallbladder stones are commonly seen in females in the third or fourth decade. But in the last two decades, it has been the incidence has been increasing across all the age groups. And if you look at the reason why it is happening, it is mainly because in the change in the lifestyle habits, the dietary habits of the people, the lack of exercises and consumption of more of junk foods. And if you look at the nature of the stones, it is majority the cholesterol stones which are a big component in the gallbladder stones. So how do you suspect that somebody has gallstones? So if you look at the natural history of the gallbladder stones, majority of the people who are suffering from gallstones are usually asymptomatic and incidentally get diagnosed during health checks. But there are few percentage of people who develop symptoms because of the gallbladder stones. The most common symptom which people develop when they are suffering from gallbladder stones is the pain in the upper part of the abdomen, which we call as a biliary colic, that usually they have a pain in the upper abdomen might be associated with some nausea or vomiting. Most of the people attribute these symptoms to gastric and resort to homemade remedies or over the counter medications. So what we have to be careful with these things is if someone is experiencing these symptoms and if these are not getting resolved with these remedies, one should visit a practitioner or a physician to rule out that whether they have been suffering from gallbladder stones because they can mimic the similar complaints. A simple ultrasound will help in clinching the diagnosis of the gallbladder stones. So what next if someone has been diagnosed with gallbladder stones? As I said earlier, majority of the people might have an asymptomatic stone. So the treatment depends upon whether the gallbladder is creating or causing any problem or not. If you are having an asymptomatic incidentally diagnosed stone, we usually follow a wait and watch policy with few exceptions where we the doctor might advise for the surgical remedy if the gallbladder stone size is bigger or any family history of gallbladder cancer. In most of the patients who are symptomatic in them, the definitive treatment option is surgical removal of the gallbladder, which is known also as cholecystectomy. There are various approaches for this cholecystectomy. The standard one being the open, which was being done in the earlier days. But there are other options of doing it, the laparoscopic or robotic. These are the two options which we offer in our hospital because these laparoscopic approaches and robotic approaches have got a very good recovery, faster return to work and less car and less pain. And coming to the end of the topic, there are certain myths, very common myths which are associated with gallbladder stones in the public. One is, is there any other treatment option for the management of the gallbladder stones like any stone dissolving, tablets, all those things majority of the people ask us. So what we advise them is that the medical treatment is not a definitive solution. Though there are certain medications which helps in certain two extent for dissolution of the stones, but they are not advisable in a surgical fit candidate. We prescribe certain medications for dissolving in patients who are unfit for surgery or where the stone has not informed what we call as a gallbladder sludge, a pre-stone in those patients. Otherwise, in majority of the patients who have gallbladder stones, the definitive treatment option is surgery. Then the second myth is whether you want to take out the whole gallbladder or it is only the stone. The definitive treatment is the complete removal of the gallbladder because the problem lies within the gallbladder itself. So there is no option of just removal of the stones. The whole gallbladder has to be removed. The third myth is what are the side effects or the long-term consequences of not having the gallbladder. It has been found that there are no serious short-term or long-term side effects of removal of the gallbladder and one can lead a very healthy life even without the gallbladder. Thank you very much.