Keyhole surgery carried out on black bear.

Romain Pizzi, specialist surgeon at the RZSS and a presenter on TV's Animal Planet channel, was flown to Vietnam to save the creature's life by charity Free the Bears.

The patient, an Asiatic black bear called Map-map, is one of nine living at the Mekong Delta Bear Sanctuary near Rach Gia in south-west Vietnam.

The 6ft tall, 25st animal had life-threatening damage to his gall bladder after being rescued from a bile farm. Many rescue bears that have been used for bile farming suffer from gallbladder disease.

Mr Pizzi, who has performed more than 360 keyhole procedures on animals in the past four years, said: "The operation has been a great success and Map-map has made a speedy recovery.

"Laparoscopic surgery is still very uncommon in veterinary medicine, even amongst common species such as dogs, cats and horses, so for keyhole surgery to be carried out on a bear is a great advancement in veterinary surgery."

Although keyhole surgery is routine in humans, the standard procedure in animals is still open abdominal surgery, which can result in large, painful wounds, post-operative pain, slower recovery and a higher risk of post-operative complications and infections.

Bears previously rescued from bile farms have demonstrated a very high incidence of gallbladder and liver disease related to the practice of "milking" bile. Up to 47 per cent of bears later died of liver and gall-bladder tumours.

Mr Pizzi said he hoped the success of the operation on Map-map would lead more vets to turn to the procedure.

Free the Bears has been working in Vietnam since 2008, supporting government efforts to end the farming of bears for their bile. But about 4,000 bears are incarcerated in cramped cages in Vietnam, with many still being illegally "milked".