The bacterial flora of the biliary tract and liver in man

Abstract

Abstract A bacteriological study was made of 106 patients undergoing elective surgery for gallbladder disease and as a control group, of patients with a normal biliary tract but requiring laparotomy for gastrointestinal disease. The isolation rate of all species of bacteria from the gallbladder and common bile duct in those patients with calculi in the duct system and in those with nonfunctioning gallbladders was considerably higher than in patients with a normal biliary system. Surprisingly, the number of isolates from patients with a history of cholsecystitis or cholelithiasis was no greater than in the control group of patients. Using modern techniques of anaerobic retrieval and culture, only a small number of anaerobes were isolated, and despite the prevalence of Bacteroides species as a normal gut inhabitant and as an opportunistic pathogen, this organism was not recovered from any of the sites investigated. Anaerobic species were Isolated from 8 out of the 106 liver biopsy specimens taken at a very early stage after laparotomy, but in such patients only non-specific liver changes were found by histological examinmation. In 8 patients from whom Escherichia colt or other aerobes were isolated from bile samples, at concentrates ranging from 105 to 107/cm3, the same species of organism were consistently isolated from T tube drainage samples for up to 8 or 9 days despite tetracycline therapy.