Long-term effects of gallbladder removal

You first change into a hospital gown before the procedure.

Laparoscopic gallbladder surgery recovery time

You then get an IV so your doctor can give you medications and fluids through your vein. You’re put under general anesthesia, which means you’ll be in a painless sleep before and during the surgery. A tube is placed in your throat that’s connected to a mechanical ventilator to help you breathe.

For the procedure, your surgeon makes four small incisions in your abdomen.

They use these incisions to guide a tube with a small, lighted camera into your abdomen.

They then guide other tools through the incisions while looking at a monitor that shows what the camera captures.

Your abdomen is inflated with gas so your surgeon has space to work.

They remove your gallbladder through the incisions.

After your surgeon removes your gallbladder, they use a special X-ray to check for problems in your bile duct. This technique is called intraoperative cholangiography.

This shows any abnormalities in the remaining bile duct structures, like a bile stone, that your surgeon may need to remove.