Some patients are apprehensive about surgical treatment of gallbladder stones and want to be cured by the so-called “non-invasive” methods. What is clear is that if the gallbladder stones do not cause you any discomfort and the stones are not particularly large, it is enough to insist on review and live peacefully with the stones; however, some so-called conservative treatments cannot cure gallbladder stones, and they are not as effective as surgery. The common treatment methods other than surgery are: lithotripsy, Chinese herbal medicine, and the so-called extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy on the Internet. Let’s start with lithotripsy. Firstly, the success rate of lithotripsy is not high; secondly, it is difficult for patients to stick to it, as it requires patients to take lithotripsy drugs regularly for six months without interruption, which many patients cannot do. The effect of lithotripsy will be poor. In conclusion, lithotripsy is not suitable for all gallbladder stone patients, and whether lithotripsy can be performed requires the judgment of a professional doctor. As for Chinese herbal medicine, it can also help to relieve the symptoms and reduce the inflammation of the gallbladder. However, Chinese herbal medicine cannot cure gallbladder stones yet. There are also some propaganda that gallbladder stones can be treated by stone removal, which I am strongly opposed to. First of all, the natural excretion rate of gallbladder stones is 10%, which is a relatively high chance and common in clinical practice. The stones will be drained through the gallbladder duct to the duodenum, a process that will be more painful for the patient because there is definitely biliary obstruction during the draining process. Unlike urinary stones, gallbladder stones can cause great damage to the patient’s biliary system, and the potential risk of this process is very high, if the bile duct is blocked, it may cause cholangitis, which can lead to acute septic cholangitis and even shock, and the mortality rate in this case is high. Therefore, gallbladder stone removal is not desirable. The so-called extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy was popular for a while, but it eventually disappeared because although the shock wave may break the stone, it still needs to be discharged by the stone itself, which is still very dangerous, so it is gradually eliminated. In some patients, the symptoms disappear through conservative treatment such as lithotripsy, and the gallbladder stones do not cause any trouble, so surgery is not necessary and can continue to be observed. In this way, the so-called “conservative treatment” has its limitations and high risks, while the general surgical laparoscopic treatment does not have so many limitations. Regardless of the type of gallbladder stone, the surgical treatment is basically the same. Whether or not to have surgery for gallbladder stones depends on whether or not the stones are causing harm. If the stones are not very large, but the patient has symptoms, or if they are causing obstruction, surgery is also needed. Although surgery is an invasive treatment, patients generally recover well after surgery and are symptom-free for life, and are able to cure gallbladder stones at an early stage. Surgery for gallbladder stones usually requires removal of the gallbladder and basically will not recur after surgery, but there are special cases: some people have had the disease for a long time and the stones are discharged into the bile ducts, which may damage the “sphincter of Oddi” and cause complications such as constrictive papillitis, which will eventually lead to poor bile duct drainage and recurrence of stones. Therefore, gallbladder stone surgery must be done as early as possible to avoid the above-mentioned situation. Of course, surgery has certain risks for some patients, such as elderly patients with combined coronary heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and other diseases. Such patients need to control other diseases before surgery and operate after their health condition is stable.