The Etiological Role of Bacteria in Bile Peritonitis. An Experimental Study in Dogs.

Abstract

According to the prevalent view “bile peritonitis” is due to the toxicity of bile. Horrall1 observed that when bile was allowed to drain continuously into the peritoneal cavity the dogs died within 24 hours. He attributed the cause of death to the toxicity of the bile salts. In order to gather additional data on the mechanism of “bile peritonitis” the following experiments were performed.In a series of 20 dogs, peritonitis was produced by allowing bile to drain into the peritoneal cavity. Determinations of bilirubin by the Van den Bergh method and bile salts by the quantitative Pettenkofer reaction developed by Aldrich2 were made on blood drawn from the femoral veins of these dogs, 4 and 18 hours after their operations. No increase of bilirubin or bile salts could be detected by these methods even though the animals were dying as the result of their peritonitis. At necropsy the peritoneum was acutely inflamed, the surfaces covered with a thin layer of fibrin and a few small areas of fat necrosis were obse...