Cholecystectomy

Cholecystectomy is the surgical removal of the gallbladder, the small pouch tucked under the liver that stores and concentrates bile between meals. It is one of the operations most often performed on adults. The usual reason is gallstones that cause trouble: bouts of pain under the right ribs called biliary colic, inflammation of the gallbladder (cholecystitis), or a stone lodged in a bile duct, which can cause jaundice or pancreatitis. Gallstones that produce no symptoms generally do not need surgery.

Nearly all cholecystectomies are now done laparoscopically. The surgeon fills the abdomen with gas to create space, passes a camera and slim instruments through a few small cuts, clips and divides the cystic duct and cystic artery, frees the gallbladder from the liver and takes it out. Many patients go home the same day. An open operation through a single larger cut is kept for a severely inflamed or scarred gallbladder, or for when keyhole surgery cannot be finished safely.

People digest food normally without a gallbladder, because bile keeps draining from the liver directly into the duodenum; a few have softer, more frequent stools for a time. The complication surgeons take most care to avoid is injury to the main bile ducts, which is rare but can need further operations to fix.