492 stones found in woman's gall bladder

MUMBAI: When Paramjeet Bhatnagar (38) suffered from severe stomach ache last month, she had not thought that she was suffering from gallbladder, let alone that her gall bladder was holding 492 stones.
On December 30, Paramjeet suddenly had severe abdominal pain. Her husband immediately took her to a nearby hospital in Kalyan. The doctor gave her a painkiller, but, when the pain increased, she was advised to undergo a sonography and CT scan.
"The scans revealed the presence of two large and multiple small stones in the gall bladder," said Avinash, her husband. For second opinion, the couple went to Fortis Hospital in Kalyan.
Dr Rajendra Sonavane, laparoscopic surgeon immediately admitted Paramjeet. They decided to go for a laparoscopic surgery. "We tried to defect the gall bladder from the liver, but it would not come out. It was difficult to lift the gall bladder as it was very heavy. So, we held the gall bladder mouth with a scope and removed the stones with forceps," said Dr Sonavane. However, 15 minutes and about 50 stones later, the doctor realized that the stones were far from over.
"We kept removing the stones and used various techniques. After 45 minutes, we could remove the gall bladder," he said, adding that there were 492 stones. As far as records go, the largest number of gallstones removed was 3,110 in an open surgery in Britain in 1983, reported in the Guinness Book of World Records. "Ideally, stones in such large numbers are removed in an open surgery. But, we had no idea that there were so many stones. The surgery was indeed a challenge," said Dr Sonavane, adding that it was important to remove the gallbladder, as leaving it behind would have been conducive to further formation of gallstones.
Paramjeet is fine and her stitches were removed on Thursday. "She was discharged in a day," said Avinash.