Production of Bile (Nursing)

00:00 So where does bile start in the body? Well, take a look at our picture there for a clue, right? You see, that's a close-up of the liver.

00:09 You see the hepatic biliary system, that big green tube.

00:12 You see the gallbladder tucked up underneath there.

00:15 Now, in a lot of drawings you'll see the gallbladder completely separate but that's not how it looks in your body.

00:21 It's actually pretty tight up underneath the liver.

00:25 So when they have to remove the gallbladder, they've got to separate it from your liver tissue.

00:30 But where does it start? Is it the liver? Is it the gallbladder? Is it the stomach? Is it the pancreas? Where is it? Well, I know you already know it starts in the liver, but specifically it's made by the hepatocytes.

00:45 So those little tiny worker B cells.

00:49 Now take a look at the picture I have for you there.

00:51 You see, you've got a hepatocyte there.

00:54 You've got the canaliculi - those little green stringy things, then you've got the bile ducts.

01:00 So bile is created by the hepatocytes.

01:03 It travels through the canaliculi to make it to the bile ducts on the outside.

01:09 So the whole cell is called a hepatocyte.

01:13 The canaliculi are what transports the bile out to the bile ducts.

01:19 So the hepatocytes are the makers of the bile.

01:21 They're the worker B cells of the liver.

01:24 So they transport it with the bile canaliculi to the bile ducts.

01:28 And remember bile flows outward, blood flows inward.

01:33 So in the hepatocyte, blood and bile flow opposite directions.

01:38 I want to talk to you about how the bile travels from these tiny little hepatocytes, right? See that? In the circle, we've got that blown up or magnified for you.

01:48 See that green arrow? That's to remind you that bile travels to those canaliculi out to the outside of the hepatocyte and into the bile duct.

01:58 Now those tiny branches of the bile duct become the right in hepatic ducts.

02:03 That just means what side of the liver they're on.

02:07 Okay, so hepatocytes travels outward to the bile duct.

02:10 Those bile ducts connect together through a network to the right and left hepatic ducts depending on their location.

02:17 Next up, you have the common hepatic duct.

02:21 Now, why is it called that? Because that's where the right hepatic duct and the left hepatic duct come together.

02:28 That's why it has its name common hepatic duct.

02:31 Now keep tracing that along.

02:33 Hepatocyte, you've got the bile ducts right and left, right and left come together for common hepatic duct.

02:42 Then it joins to the common bile duct.

02:45 Okay, why are we spending time on this? Because understanding the plumbing of the hepatobiliary system is key to knowing how to recognize danger signs in your patient and knowing what to do about it.

02:58 Hepatocyte, get to the hepatic ducts, the common hepatic ducts, the common bile duct.

03:05 And again, what is that little green structure under there? Right? It's the gallbladder, which is a storage place for bile.

03:14 Because when the bile flows from the liver into the common duct, into the common bile duct, the gallbladder acts as a storage or a garage for the bile.

03:25 Okay, from the gallbladder, bile flows from the gallbladder into the small intestine.

03:31 That's where it actually mixes with the food for the first time.

03:35 So when I eat something, the way bile gets down to that food is it travels from the liver to the gallbladder down through the common bile duct past my pancreas into my small intestine.

03:49 That's where the bile starts to mix with the food and do what it does best - ripping things apart.

03:55 It's digestive functions.