Cholangitis means inflammation of your bile ducts. The most common cause of cholangitis are gallstones blocking your ducts that lead to a bacterial infection. And E. coli, which normally hangs out in your intestine, is the bacteria that frequently causes this infection.
However, gallstones leading to infection are not the only cause of cholangitis. For instance, biliary atresia or primary sclerosing cholangitis, an autoimmune disease, is another cause for bile duct inflammation.
Cholangitis inflammation because an infection resulted from bile duct blockage via gallstones might cause you some of these symptoms:
- fever
- chills
- jaundice
- dark urine
- nausea, vomiting
- clay colored stools
- upper right abdominal pain
Sepsis is a potential complication of cholangitis. And the infection causing it can spread to your liver.
If your symptoms indicate an infection, then initial treatment is taking an antibiotic to control the bacterial infection. For some, their bile duct inflammation and infection may require emergency biliary drainage and surgical gallstone removal.
