You might want to get a second opinion. That your daughter is having pain suggests she might need to have her gallbladder removed, which can often be done with minimally-invasive (laparoscopic) surgery on an outpatient basis.
The gallbladder is a pear-sized organ that lies underneath the liver, on the right side of the abdomen. It’s basically a storage facility for bile that is made in the liver. When a person eats, the stomach sends a signal to the gallbladder to release its stored bile, which mixes in the upper part of the intestine with fats and other bits of food to break them down into smaller pieces, explained Dr. David C. Brooks, director of minimally-invasive surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Several different gallbladder problems can be easily confused. Gallstones are most commonly composed of cholesterol. They move around and block the ducts that bring bile into or out of the gallbladder. This causes pain and often occurs within an hour of eating. During an ultrasound, the radiologist may ask the patient to roll around on the table: Gallstones move around as the patient does.
Polyps are different. True polyps are growths in the gallbladder wall. They tend to occur in people in their 70s and 80s and can become cancerous, although this is rare, said Dr. William Brugge, director of gastrointestinal endoscopy at Massachusetts General Hospital. But radiologists sometimes label as a “polyp” a small chunk of cholesterol — not living tissue — that is just lightly embedded in the gallbladder wall. These so-called polyps are benign and don’t usually cause complications or problems.