Gall Bladder Surgery Patient Info

Pre-operative advice

Once diagnosed with gallstones and until your operation refrain from eating fatty foods (fried foods, excessive butter and cheese) as fat stimulates the gall bladder and may cause pain.

What are the possible complications and how common are they?

Major complications after laparoscopic cholecystectomy are extremely rare. Life threatening complications such as injury to the bile duct, bowel or major blood vessels occur less than 3 in 1000 cases. The more common complications of infection and bleeding of the incisions are also quite rare. A swelling at the site of one of the key hole incisions maybe a result of bleeding, infection or a hernia, called a port site hernia.

Chest complications such as collapse of the base of the lung and pneumonia are also rare and occur more often after open surgery than laparoscopic surgery.

Clots in the legs (thrombosis) which could travel into the lungs also rare if all the necessary precautions are taken.

How long does it take to recover?

You should be able to carry out most of your normal activities including light exercises around 2 days after surgery. However, this varies from patient to patient and depends on the extent of discomfort.