The decision for surgery in a patient with gallstones often needs to be taken in totality together with the patient's overall fitness for surgery. In addition, it is useful to determine whether a gallstone is mobile in the gallbladder or if it is still adherent to the gallbladder wall.
Only mobile gallstones can give rise to gallstone complications such as gallbladder outlet obstruction, migration that can cause obstruction to the bile duct (liver drainage system) or more dangerously, obstruction of the pancreatic duct.
In my practice, in my patients with gallstones, I usually perform a dynamic ultrasound examination myself to determine if the gallstone is mobile.
