The Amalfi Coast, south of Naples, is still a magnet for wealthy Russians and romantic Americans. Yet Naples itself is a tourist wasteland, and the rest of southern Italy is largely vacationer-free. Only 13 percent of tourists who come to Italy go to the Mezzogiorno, as the south is known.
Depending on where a stone blocks the flow of bile, symptoms can include nausea, vomiting, fever, and severe abdominal pain that lasts longer than 6 hours. If you have these symptoms, you may need surgery to remove your gallbladder or the gallstone causing the blockage.
Gallstones can be divided into 2 categories: Cholesterol stones (80%) and pigment stones (20%). Most patients with gallstones are asymptomatic. Stones may temporarily obstruct the cystic duct or pass through into the common bile duct, leading to symptomatic biliary colic, which develops in 1-4% of patients with gallstones annually. Cholecystitis occurs when obstruction at the cystic duct is prolonged (usually several hours) resulting in inflammation of the gallbladder wall.