Laparoscopic Gallbladder Surgery

Laparoscopic Gallbladder Surgery refers to 'key hole' or 'minimally invasive' surgery to remove your gallbladder and is usually because you have been found to have symptomatic gallstones. These can be really painful, typically in the right upper bit of your abdomen and usually require an ultrasound of your abdomen for diagnosis.

Gallstones can lead to more worrying conditions like cholecystitis (infection of the gallbladder), cholangitis (infection of the bile duct) and pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas gland). Whilst you are waiting for gallbladder surgery you should be on a strict low fat diet – avoiding rich fatty foods. For example cheeses, cakes, biscuits, fried foods, pizzas, burgers, chips and most fast or processed foods.

The key hole procedure to remove your gallbladder requires four tiny wounds into your abdomen and then the gallbladder is removed. The traditional way of doing this operation was with a big cut under the right side of your rib cage. This is sometimes still needed if complications occur during laparoscopic surgery or might be planned if you have got multiple scars from other previous operations on your abdomen.

You usually need to stay in hospital overnight after your laparoscopic gallbladder surgery but more recently it can also be day case surgery. Your return to activities is a lot faster than if you had open surgery to remove your gallbladder.

After gallbladder surgery you can resume your normal diet as you wish or continue on a low fat healthy diet. You will be able to walk around immediately and your normal activities can gradually be introduced once you are comfortable in one or two weeks. The cuts in your skin are usually closed with absorbable invisible stitches which do not need to be removed.