Diarrhea After Gallbladder Removal

Dear Ask The Doctor: I had my gallbladder removed two months ago. This weekend i had the worst case of the stomach flu i can recall. My question is, are stomach flu symptoms worse after gallbladder removal?

I doubt if there is any correlation between stomach flu and cholecystectomy (gall bladder removal). Stomach flu is usually caused by a virus; this infection usually presents with diarrhea and vomiting, a few may have headaches and muscle pains but once it runs its course, it will resolve on its own. The gall bladder is mainly responsible for digesting fat in the diet. If a person without a gall bladder has eaten something with too much fat, steatorrhea (fat indigestion, resulting to diarrhea) may occur. The possibilities are, you may have had stomach flu but the kind of virus that caused this one caused more severe symptoms and/or you had too much fat in your diet (meats, oily foods, muffins/pastries – some of them have lots of cream and butter, etc) that your body was not able to digest it. However, in ~5-10 of patients who have had cholecystectomy, a condition called bile-salt induced diarrhea can occur. This is a complication of the surgery and can be treated with medications. If the “stomach flu” happens again or worsens, you should go back to your doctor and/or surgeon for the appropriate treatment. I do hope this helps and take care always.