Another look at laparoscopic laser cholecystectomy.

The bile acids in brown pigment stones and gall-bladder bile were fractionated into free acids, gly-cine and taurine conjugates, and sulfates, usingdiethylamino-hydroxypropyl-SephadexLH-20 (DEAP-LH-20)column chromatography,and were quantitatedby gas chromatography. Twenty-eight cases of brownpigment stones were studied and divided into twogroups: those with and those without bacteria pos-sessing bile acid-deconjugatingactivity. In the former,free bile acid amounted to 62 i 34% of the total bileacid, while in the latter, only 0.1%of total bile acid wasfree bile acid. The fraction of total bile acid made up offree bile acids was found to be consistently higher inbrown pigment stones than in the corresponding bile,irrespectiveof the presence or absence of biliaryinfection. Free bile acid is present in negligibleamounts in normal bile. Total bile acid concentrationin the bile of patients withbrown pigment stones wassignificantly less than that of controls (13vs. 60 mg/ml).Biliary infection is almost always present in cases withbrown pigment stones. These findings suggest that