LAPAROSCOPIC Vs OPEN Gallbladder Surgery

Overview: 

Surgical removal of the gallbladder is just one of the most popular procedures made by the NHS. A lot more than 60,000 gallbladder removals are done every year.

The medical term for gallbladder removal is cholecystectomy.

 

What will happen during gallbladder removal surgery?

There are basically two main method of removing a gallbladder.

Laparoscopic (keyhole) cholecystectomy

This is the most common type of procedure to remove your gallbladder. It requires using a small camera and also surgical instruments that are inserted through very small cuts (incisions) in your stomach.

Open cholecystectomy

In open cholecystectomy, the gallbladder is removed via one huge incision in your stomach. This method is known as open surgery. It is a more invasive procedure than keyhole surgery. You need to be in hospital for longer and it requires a long time to recover.

Open surgery is now usually only applied in case there are medical reasons why laparoscopic cholecystectomy cannot be safely done, or in case of the doctor makes a decision that it would be risk-free to change to open surgery throughout the procedure (this is called conversion).

Both the methods are generally performed under a basic anaesthetic, so the patient getting the surgery is sleeping throughout surgery and will feel no pain.

Recovering from gallbladder removal surgery

It doesn't get long to recover from laparoscopiccholecystectomy. A lot of people can leave hospital the same day or the tomorrow morning.

You will get back into normal routines within 14 days and it needs to be secure to perform strenuous workout after 30 days.

It requires much longer recovering from an open cholecystectomy. It may be 3 to 5 days right before you can leave hospital, and it could be 6 weeks before you are feeling back to normal.

Complications

Both laparoscopic as well as open cholecystectomies are usually safe surgery with a minimal risk of complications.

The most frequent complication is infection at the site of the incision, which occurs in around 1 in 15 cases.

Final Verdict:

Single-incision laparoscopic cholecystectomy is a completely new kind of keyhole operation used to remove the gallbladder.

Only 1 little cut (incision) is made, that means the mark left is barely noticeable.

However, this kind of operation is generally not available. You may just be capable of get this kind of operation if you are ready to pay for private treatment or are taking part in a clinical trial.