What is Biliary Colic and How is it Treated?

Do you suspect that you have biliary colic? If you’re not exactly sure what this is or whether or not you have it – don’t worry. Although biliary colic isn’t that uncommon, the term itself certainly is.

“What is Biliary Colic?”

Essentially biliary colic is an irritation of the biliary tract. Without getting drowned in medical jargon, that basically means that the path between the liver and the pancreas that is used to secrete bile has somehow become irritated.

On the surface, you probably won’t even realize that all of this is going on – but what you will feel is a pain coming from the relative area (right beside or above your stomach). Although it is known as ‘colic’ the pain isn’t really all that colic-like in nature. Instead, it is intense and comes on rapidly, but has been known to last upwards of 30 minutes and even as much as a couple of hours in some cases.

Most of the cases of biliary colic are caused by gallstones – but just because you have biliary colic it doesn’t mean that gallstones are the only explanation. Frankly speaking there are an entire host of causes that could be responsible, ranging from disorders with the biliary tract right on to a dysfunction of the entire biliary tree.

Basically it is impossible to tell what is causing biliary colic by casual observation alone, and more often than not it will take a number of tests to figure out what the underlying cause really is.

Biliary Colic Treatment Options

When it comes to treating biliary colic, there are two main phases that need to be taken care of:

• Pain management, and
• Treating the underlying cause

Pain management for biliary colic is normally relatively simple and the most common forms of treatments are non-steroidal analgesics such as voltaren and toradol. Sometimes buscopan (an antispasmodic) is used to manage the pain as well, but it is generally not nearly as effective as analgesics.

On the other hand, treatment for the underlying cause would vary – depending on what that cause is. If it is caused by gallstones and there is a risk of further incidents then surgically removing the gallbladder might be the only option.

For other causes, specific treatments should be recommended by your doctor or you may be referred to a specialist.

All said and done, the main reason why biliary colic is considered to be a fairly urgent condition is the fact that the pain can often be debilitating and to the point where you need to find some form of relief.

As such it is mostly going to affect your quality of life, rather than being actually life-threatening.

Still, if you suspect that you do have biliary colic you need to see a doctor quickly. If it does happen to be caused by gallstones that might be an indication that your gallbladder is inflamed, and could lead to further complications.

Remember: It is better to be safe than sorry!