Comment: This study, along with others, supports the fact that laparoscopic cholecystectomy results in better postoperative pulmonary functions than patients undergoing open cholecystectomy. The actual pulmonary functions showed figures such as a 56% decrease in forced vital capacity in the open group vs. 72% in the laparoscopic group. Differences in other pulmonary functions were of the same magnitude.All of patients studied were healthy and had undergone preoperative pulmonary function tests. The implications are perhaps more significant when one deals with a population of patients who have impaired pulmonary function.