Patients undergoing open cholecystectomy are often in the hospital three to seven days and aren't back to feeling like themselves for four to six weeks. In contrast, patients who have laparoscopic cholecystectomies usually leave the hospital the same day or the next morning and are pretty much back to themselves within 14 days. Laparoscopic operations are more difficult and some complications like major bile duct injury are actually more likely with laparoscopic than open cholecystectomy. Flowers, Dunkin and Cho have not found complications more likely in their hands to date. The steps of the operation are unchanged with the laparoscopic method, but visualization is achieved by using a video camera instead of the naked eye and the steps of the operation are performed with special instruments instead of with the hands.
Laparoscopic surgery is very similar in principle.