The incidence of bacteria in gallbladder bile at acute and elective cholecystectomy.

Aerobic and anaerobic bacterial cultivation was carried out on gallbladder bile collected from all patients operated on with cholecystectomy during a 10-month period. Acute cholecystectomy was performed on 34 patients because of acute cholecystitis. Elective cholecystectomy was performed on 177 patients because of non-acute gallbladder pathology. Bacteria were found in gallbladder bile in 16.4% of patients with non-acute cholecystopathy compared to 58.8% of patients with acute cholecystitis (p less than 0.001). An increased incidence of pathogenic bacteria was observed in the acute compared to the elective cholecystectomy material. The acute inflammatory process, its severity and the age of the patient seemed to be important factors which could be related to the increased occurrence of bacteria in the gallbladder bile. A higher incidence of postoperative morbidity and infectious complications was found in patients with pathogenic bacteria in gallbladder bile than in patients with no growth of bacteria or opportunistic bacteria in gallbladder bile.