Laparoscopic cholecystectomy was the third and final major therapeutic innovation for the treatment of cholecystolithiasis introduced into clinical practice in the 1980s, the others being bile salt dissolution and extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy rapidly became and has remained the standard treatment for cholecystolithiasis for almost 10 years. It success is based on patient approval of a procedure that is at once minimally invasive and highly effective in that it rapidly and permanently eliminates cholecystolithiasis. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy has become a mature surgical operation in only 10 years, and the major current issues relate to timing of its application in complicated cholelithiasis and to various negative outcomes, such as biliary injury. Laparoscopic biliary surgery for other purposes has advanced much more slowly. Laparoscopic bile duct exploration is becoming standardized. Laparoscopic bypass for malignancy and other advanced laparoscopic procedures have developed slowly, and their future is unclear.