Gallbladder surgery can have a wide range of results, but in most cases, the patient can expect to live a fairly normal life after the surgery. The recovery period after gallbladder surgery has been reduced by the increased use of laparoscopic techniques, which are much less invasive than open surgery. A brief postoperative hospital stay is usually necessary, and people often return to work and other normal activities within a week to ten days after surgery.
The main effect of having the gallbladder removed is that the body can no longer store bile between meals. For some people, this translates to little or no necessary change in lifestyle or diet. For others, digestive symptoms may be a part of everyday life for some time, or even permanently thereafter. The extent to which a person may need to change his diet or lifestyle in the long term is very difficult to predict, but it may be best to avoid very greasy or spicy foods until you have some idea how they may affect you.
Immediately after surgery, the patient is limited to a clear liquid diet. After this, other liquids and then foods may eventually be re-implemented over the course of the next days and weeks. Pain may be present in the shoulder and/or abdomen, and this is normal. It comes as a result of the fact that the surgeon uses ambient air, or sometimes carbon dioxide, to inflate the abdomen to allow him to see the area clearly during surgery. This pain almost always dissipates within two days to one week.
Other temporary effects that can be experienced after gallbladder surgery include nausea, diarrhea, and loss of appetite. These are sometimes directly related to the surgery and the anesthesia, and will likely be very temporary. Many of the negative side effects of gallbladder surgery are lessened if it is performed laparoscopically, meaning through small incisions rather than one large incision. There are some indications that would require a laparoscopic procedure to be converted to a traditional open surgery. These include the presence of a severe inflammation in the bile duct, being in the later stages of pregnancy, and any acute lung disease that would rule out the inflation of the abdomen which would otherwise restrict breathing.
Some possibility exists for complications after surgery. The more common potential problems include an infection at the incision site, internal bleeding, and injury to the surrounding organs from surgical instruments. Overall, however, gallbladder surgery is considered to be a safe, routine procedure, whose benefits far outweigh the risks for the majority of patients. Most experience a great degree of improvement in quality of life and overall health after gallbladder surgery.
