3. Answer the following questions:

1. What is the liver?

2. What role does it play?

3. What are the main functions of the liver?

4. How much does a normal human liver weigh?

5. Where is the liver located? What does it make?

6. What is the liver supplied by?

7. What is the liver covered by?

8. What is the liver capable of?

9. What are the various functions of the liver are performed by?

10. What does the liver produce?

11. What is the bile required for?

12. What does liver perform, produce, convert, and store?

13. Where are diseases and disorders of the liver accompanied by?

14. What is hepatitis? What is it caused by?

15. What is cirrhosis?

16. What may the death of the liver cells be caused by?

17. What is hemochromotosis? What does it led to?

18. What is cancer of the liver?

4. Make up a story using the questions above. The Gallbladder

1. Learn the following words:

gallbladder – желчный пузырь,

to store – хранить,

digestion – пищеварение,

due to – в следствии,

tissue – ткань,

cholestasis – холестас,

obstruction – закупорка,

cholelithiasis – холелитиаз,

cholecystitis – холецистит,

choledocholithiasis – холедолитиаз.

2. Read and translate the text.

The Gallbladder

The gallbladder is a pear-shaped organ. The gallbladder stores about 50 ml of bile until the body needs it for digestion. The gallbladder is about 7 – 10 cm long in humans. The gallbladder is dark-green in appearance due to its contents (bile), but not its tissue.

The gallbladder is connected to the main bile duct through the gallbladder duct (cystic duct). The main biliary tract runs from the liver to the duodenum, and the cystic duct serves as entrance and exit to the gallbladder. The gallbladder is supplied by cystic artery and vein.

The gallbladder stores bile. Bile releases when food containing fats enters the digestive tract.

There are several disorders and diseases of the gallbladder. They are the following:

Cholestasis is the blockage in the supply of the bile into the digestive tract. It can be “intrahepatic” (the obstruction is in the liver) and “extrahepatic” (outside the liver). It can lead to jaundice.

Up to 25% of all people have gallstones or cholelithiasis. Gallstones are composed of cholesterol, lecithin, and bile acids. Gallstones can cause colicky shooting abdominal pains, usually in relation with the meal. The gallbladder contracts and gallstones pass through the bile duct. Surgery (cholecystectomy or removal of the gallbladder) is the most common treatment for gallstones. It can be performed laparoscopically. People traditionally considered at high risk of cholelithiasis are: female, fat (obese people), middle-aged, and fertile.

Acute or chronic inflammation of the gallbladder (cholecystitis) causes abdominal pain. 90% of cases of acute cholecystitis are caused by the presence of gallstones.

When gallstones obstruct the common bile duct, the patient develops jaundice and liver cells may become damaged. It is a medical emergency. This condition is called choledocholithiasis. Choledocholithiasis requires endoscopic or surgical treatment.