How does the gallbladder work?

How does the gallbladder work?

The gallbladder connects to your liver by a duct system (tubes) that look like a tree trunk with branches. There are many ducts, or “branches” inside your liver. These tree branches connect to two main tree limbs in your liver, called the right and left hepatic ducts. These two ducts merge (like the trunk of a tree) to form your common hepatic duct. One main “tree limb” coming off the common hepatic duct is called the cystic duct. It connects directly into your gallbladder. The common hepatic duct, the “tree trunk,” continues but its name changes to the common bile duct. Your common bile duct empties into the duodenum section of the small intestine.

Bile, a fat-dissolving liquid substance that is made continuously by your liver, travels through the duct system and enters your digestive system at the duodenum. When you are not eating, a valve structure at the common bile duct and duodenum connection, called the major duodenal papilla, is usually closed. This allows the bile to reflux back through the cystic duct into your gallbladder to be stored. During mealtime, your gallbladder contracts, and the valve opens, pushing the stored bile out of your gallbladder, through the cystic duct and down the common bile duct into your intestine. Bile mixes with the partially digested food, further helping the breakdown of the fat in your diet.

Gallstones, or even sludge, in the gallbladder can obstruct this normal flow of bile, leading to cholecystitis.