Gallbladder surgery with da Vinci
If gallbladder pain is disrupting your life, minimally invasive surgery with da Vinci may be the answer.Gallbladder surgery (also called a cholecystectomy) doesn't have to mean a long recovery. Today, minimally invasive da Vinci surgery allows surgeons to remove the gallbladder through tiny incisions.Many doctors trust da Vinci to help them remove gallbladders. It helps them see more clearly than they can with their eyes. It also helps them move instruments with greater control, even in small spaces inside the body.
- Greater precision: The da Vinci system turns your surgeon's hand movements into very small, exact movements of the instruments. It also helps steady the instruments by reducing surgeon hand tremors. This helps your surgeon carefully remove the gallbladder while avoiding important structures, like the liver and bile ducts.
- Better vision: Da Vinci gives your surgeon a clear, magnified 3D view inside your body and lets your surgeon use something called Firefly imaging. Firefly uses a special dye that lights up during surgery, allowing surgeons to see bile ducts and blood flow so they can operate with confidence.
Da Vinci gallbladder removal: What the research shows
In the U.S., surgeons perform about 90% of gallbladder surgeries using a minimally invasive approach—including da Vinci robotic-assisted surgery.1,2 Open surgery to remove the gallbladder is uncommon, but surgeons may have to change from minimally invasive surgery to open surgery, which requires a cut (incision) about six inches long.Summarized results seen in studies for CholecystectomySurgery studies look at different patients and measure different results. That's why results for da Vinci surgery vary across study groups. Where studies didn't measure a result, “No data available” appears.
Gallbladder removal surgery3
The results shown in this chart are from a review of 31 studies published from January 1, 2010 to April 15, 2024. The number of patients in these studies was 135,710 da Vinci surgery patients, 6,172,677 laparoscopic patients, and 499,544 open surgery patients.Metric | Da Vinci | Laparoscopic |
|---|---|---|
Average length of hospital stay (days) | 2.1 days | 2.3 days |
Estimated blood loss (mL) | 14.8 mL* | 22.5 mL |
Surgical site infections | 1.3% | 1.3% |
Complications within 30 days (%) | 13.3% | 12.0% |
Readmissions to the hospital within 30 days (%) | 5.7% | 5.7% |
Reoperations within 30 days (%) | 1.4% | 1.4% |
Unplanned change to open surgery (%) | 2.6%* | 6.3% |
Length of time in surgery (minutes) | 97 min | 87.2 min* |
* Results were statistically significant
Metric | Da Vinci | Open |
|---|---|---|
Average length of hospital stay (days) | 3.0 days* | 6.5 days |
Surgical site infections | 2.1%* | 7.0% |
Complications within 30 days (%) | 19.8%* | 31.0% |
Readmissions to the hospital within 30 days (%) | 10.5% | 18.7% |
Reoperations within 30 days (%) | 2.3% | 3.1% |
* Results were statistically significant
If you and your doctor decide surgery is right for you, ask whether da Vinci robotic-assisted surgery could be the answer.
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