Biliary colic is a steady or irregular pain in the upper abdomen. It is usually under the right side of the rib cage. It happens when gallstones interfere with the normal flow of bile from the gallbladder. Bile is a liquid that helps to digest fats. Bile is made in the liver and stored in the gallbladder. When you eat a meal, bile passes from the gallbladder through the cystic duct and the common bile duct into the small intestine. There, it mixes with partially digested food. If a gallstone blocks either of these ducts, the normal flow of bile is blocked. The muscle cells in the bile duct contract forcefully to try to move the stone. This causes the pain of biliary colic. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Biliary and renal colic are two conditions for which acupuncture can be used not only as an analgesic but also as an antispasmodic. In controlled studies on biliary colic (62–64) and renal colic (7, 65, 66), acupuncture appears to have advantages over conventional drug treatments (such as intramuscular injection of atropine, pethidine, anisodamine (a Chinese medicine structurally related to atropine, isolated from Anisodus tanguticus), bucinnazine (also known as bucinperazine) or a metamizole–camylofin combination). It provides a better analgesic effect in a shorter time, without side-effects. In addition acupuncture is effective for relieving abdominal colic, whether it occurs in acute gastroenteritis or is due to gastrointestinal spasm (67).
Posted on: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 18:48:47 +0000
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