Experimental studies of bacterial cholecystitis

Abstract

1. 1. Animal experimentation conducted on 36 dogs indicates that an increase either in the number or the virulence of bacteria in gall-bladder bile using a non-traumatizing technique, seldomly produces a reaction in the gall-bladder wall. A severe infection of the wall was obtained in 3 dogs, which had been injected with one particular strain of Streptococcus hemolyticus. The gall-bladder wall remained practically unchanged, however, upon the injection of three other strains of Streptococcus hemolyticus, as well as Bacillus coli, Streptococcus viridans, Staphylococcus aureus and albus, and Bacillus Welchii. 2. 2. In many cases the same organisms injected directly through the gall-bladder wall, or with an accompanying ligation of the common or cystic duct, produce severe or even fatal cholecystitis.