Question

A patient who had a laparoscopic cholecystectomy 4 hours ago complains of fullness in the abdomen and mild discomfort. because his vital signs are stable, the nurse should:

Answer 1

A laparoscopic cholecystectomy is the removal of gallbladder using a laparoscope which is a narrow tube with a camera and compared to the open cholecystectomy, it only has small incisions instead of a large one. The patient's stomach as part of the procedure will be inflated with carbon dioxide and will be deflated right after the procedure. The nurse should inform the patient then that it is a normal side effect of the carbon dioxide placed into the stomach prior to the start of the procedure and it would just be gone yet patient would just feel a little bit discomfort.