Objective To compare the effects of different surgical time for the recovery of elderly patients with acute cholecystitis and provide reference for its clinical treatment. Methods Clinic data of 79 elderly patients with acute cholecystitis from January 2008 to September 2013 were analyzed retrospectively. Patients were divided into two groups according to different surgical time, 42 cases having surgery within 72 h as early surgery group, and 37 cases having surgery later than 72h as delayed surgery group then the curative effects of two groups were compared and analyzed. Results The success rate of early surgery group reached 97.6%, and that of delayed surgery group 91.9%, which showed no statistically significant difference (P > 0.05); with shorter operative time, less blood loss, shorter length of hospital stay and less medical cost, patients recovered better in early surgery group than those in delayed surgery group and there were statistically significant differences between two groups (P<0.05), while the postoperative discharge time of two groups had no significant difference (P>0.05).The complication rate of early surgery group was 2.4%, and that of delayed surgery group 18.9%, which indicated statistically significant difference (P<0.05). Conclusions Early surgical treatment for elderly patients with acute cholecystitis has a good therapeutic effect and is beneficial to the early rehabilitation of patients.