Effect of Common Bile Duct Obstruction on Susceptibility of Liver to Bacterial Infection **

There are many observations in man which describe the frequency and severity of bacterial infections of the hepato-biliary system in association with common bile duct obstruction.:` This association has been corroborated in animals by observing the frequency with which complicating bacterial infections interfere with experiments designed to study the effects of sterile biliary obstruction.5" In view of the close relationship between obstruction and infection in the hepato-biliary system and considering the ease with which these structures are accessible in the experimental animal, it is remarkable that so little attention has in the past been directed to the pathogenesis of these infections.7"8 The experiments to be described were designed to obtain information about infection in the hepato-biliary system and also to see whether previous observations from this laboratory concerning obstruction and infection in the urinary tract9 were peculiar to that organ system or applicable to similar situations elsewhere in the body. The paper to follow will consider the pertinence of these observations in animals to disease in man.