Gallbladder

Looks like

A pear-shaped bag about 7–10 cm long tucked under the liver on the right.

What it does

Stores and concentrates bile and squeezes it into the gut after fatty meals.

Keeping it well

Gallstones are common; pain under the right ribs after meals needs checking, and pain with fever or yellowing is urgent.

Related conditions

• Acute liver failure
• Acute porphyria
• Alcohol withdrawal and delirium tremens
• Alcohol-related liver disease
• Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency
• Autoimmune hepatitis
• Bile duct cancer (cholangiocarcinoma)
• Biliary atresia
• Brucellosis
• Cirrhosis
• Dengue & mosquito-borne fevers
• Ebola virus disease
• Echinococcosis (hydatid disease)
• Eye melanoma (uveal melanoma)
• Gallbladder cancer
• Gallstones
• Gilbert's syndrome
• Haemochromatosis & Wilson's disease
• Hepatic encephalopathy
• High cholesterol
• Intestinal worms & schistosomiasis
• Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy
• Leishmaniasis
• Leptospirosis (Weil's disease)
• Liver abscess (pyogenic and amoebic)
• Liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma)
• Malaria
• Metabolic fatty liver disease (MASLD)
• Metabolic syndrome
• Myelofibrosis
• Newborn jaundice
• Phenylketonuria (PKU)
• Poisoning & overdose
• Portal vein thrombosis and Budd–Chiari syndrome
• Primary biliary cholangitis
• Primary sclerosing cholangitis
• Viral hepatitis (A, B, C, D, E)
• Yellow fever