Background: Cholelithiasis is a common cause of morbidity among Indians with female predominance and its treatment has shown a decisive shift from open to minimally invasive surgery, prevalence rate ranging from 10 to 20%1 most of them are asymptomatic for a long time. With advent of laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) apart from shift from open cholecystectomy (OC) to laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) is benefit of decreased hospital stay, lesser postoperative pain and early return to normal activity. LC is cosmetically better when compared to OC. But some difficulty of LC in early phase of surgical practice is long operative time and increased incidence of biliary leakage. Methods: A prospective study of 50 cases of gall stone carried out in district hospital Kalaburgi which was attached to ESIC Medical College Kalaburgi, between October 2017 and November 2018 with aim of comparing open cholecystectomy and laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Patients are divided randomly into two groups: group A underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy and group B underwent open cholecystectomy. Pros and cons of both procedures is explained in detail to the patient. Result: Duration of surgery is longer in OC than LC, 75.10 minutes versus 45.15 minutes, mean duration of postoperative pain 18 hours in group A and 30 hours in group B patients, the mean period of hospital stay was 1.8 days in group A and 4.5 days in group B patients, and postoperative food resumed in 1.2 days in group A and 2.5 days in group B and surgical site infection is higher in group B than group A. Conclusion: Minimal invasive surgery laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) is better than open cholecystectomy (OC) as first choice interms of less postoperative pain, less hospital stay and fewer incidence of surgical site infection and early return to work.

Keywords: Cholelithiasis; LC (laparoscopic cholecystectomy); OC (open cholecystectomy); Minimal invasive surgery.