SAN DIEGO -- A San Diego woman has become the third U.S. patient to have her gallbladder surgically removed through her vagina by a technique that caused little pain and no scars, it was reported Thursday.

The operation took place Tuesday at the University of California, San Diego Thornton Hospital in La Jolla, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

It is part of an international trend that surgeons hope will dramatically reduce complications by using natural orifices instead of harsh cuts when they extract diseased tissue.

"The potential benefits of this are less cost, decreased risk of post-operative hernia and no scars," said Dr. Santiago Horgan, who performed the 90-minute gallbladder operation on Dana Johnson of Thornton, the newspaper reported.

Johnson was recovering Wednesday at her home in Rancho Penasquitos.

"I feel fantastic. It's amazing," she told the Union-Tribune.

Some surgeons have said the procedure, which does not affect childbirth, may be superior to the standard method for removing gallbladders: laparoscopy, which involves making four comparatively large incisions.

The first vaginal gallbladder surgery was performed in March by Dr. Marc Bessler of New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center.

After Bessler announced the success of the procedure, he received both praise and criticism from the surgical community.

The UCSD surgeons plan to do one more vaginal gallbladder surgery. They also are scheduling two surgeries in which the gallbladder will be removed through the mouth, the Union-Tribune reported.