Open surgery for gall bladder removal

Posted , 4 users are following.

just wondering if anyone has had to have open surgery for gall bladder removal rather than key hole surgery. If so, why did you need it, how long stay in hospital, how long recovery and how long until you could go back to a non strenuous job?  Any complications after ?  

I know the preferred way fo surgery is key hole. 

0 likes, 3 replies

3 Replies

  • Posted

    Keyhole is the best way to go. If you have open you will recover within a week. Hospital stay a week. Open you will stay in hospital two weeks. And more problems with open. I had keyhole. I'm feeling great. I will tell you from my experience. Good Luck to you. I hope this will help you decide witch way to go.

  • Posted

    I had open surgery, the reason was that the surgeon who did mine did not do keyhole. As it turned out I would have ended up with open because my gallbladder was adhered to my duodenum.  I was in hospital for 2 nights.  The recovery is about 4 to 6 weeks. You have to be careful as while the outside wound might heal quite quickly, the internal wound takes longer to heal. I don’t have a very large scar either, it’s only about 3 inches.  I had no external stitches or staples, just steri strips and it healed up very nicely. 
  • Posted

    I had open surgery last year due to an enormous gallstone (5cm) and a very infected gallbladder. I was in hospital for five days and off work for six weeks with two weeks phased return after that. I definitely needed all that time off. Recovery was slow but steady and I needed a lot of help shopping, getting to doctor etc as I live alone. I couldn't drive for about a month and could only sleep on my back for a similar length of time. Pain wise it was bearable but constant (opioid painkillers don't have any affect on me so was limited in what I could take). If you have any questions, please ask. It's so hard to find anyone who's had open surgery these days! Oh, and open surgery wasn't planned it just happened that way!

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