Objective To investigate the effect of targeted nursing on postoperative pain and complication in patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC).Methods A total of 110 patients who underwent LC were divided into control group and study group by random number table method.The control group was treated with routine nursing measures while the study group applied targeted nursing intervention such as postoperative pain symptoms and complications on the basis of the control group.The visual analogue scale (VAS) was used to compare the pain scores on the 1 st,2nd and 3rd postoperative day.The postoperative complications were observed and recorded.Results The VAS score of the study group was lower than that of the control group on the 2nd and 3rd postoperative day (P ＜ 0.05).There was no significant difference in VAS score between the two groups on the 1 st postoperative day (P ＞ 0.05).The incidence of postoperative complications was 4.44％ in the study group,which was lower than 17.78％ in the control group (P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion Targeted nursing has significant effect in LC patients,which can effectively relieve pain symptoms and reduce the incidence rate of complications,so it is suitable for clinical promotion.