THE ROLE OF CAMPYLOBACTERS IN THE AETIOLOGY OF CHOLECYSTITIS

Abstract

Bile samples obtained from gallbladder of 50 consecutive patients who have undergone choleystectomy due to cholecystitis in the Sixth Surgical Department of the Ankara Numune Hospital between March 1990 and March 1991 were cultured in the SSMTM, Carry-Blair, MSM and chocolate agar media and incubated under special conditions for reproduction of Campylobacter spp. Finally, no Campylobacter reproduction was noted within the plaques. At the same time, cholecystectomy specimens of the patients were examined pathologically. Of the 50 patients, four had Campylobacters grouping just near the mucosal surface of the gallbladder (8%). In three cases in which Campylobacters were found pathologically (75%), clinical and pathologic diagnosis was acute cholecystitis. The picture was in favor of sub acute cholecystitis in one (25%). No Campylobacters were encountered in the chronic cholecystitis cases with gallstones who had had never presented acute episodes before. Consequently, presence of Campylobacters in four cases among 10 patients with acute and subacute cholecystitis (40%) and in three of the seven patients with acute episode (42.8%) emphasized that these microorganisms could be responsible for at least acute attacks of cholecystitis. This phenomenon also confirmed the papers published so far on the same issue.