Microbial contamination of the bile and its effects on the course of the surgical wound after cholecystectomy

: From a series of 58 cholecystectomies for chronic cholecystitis or for asymptomatic cholelithiasis, the authors have retrieved: 1) gall microbial contamination in 15,5% of the samples under study; 2) a complicated evolution--according to criteria defined for this research--of the operative wounds in 37,5% of the cases with positive gall cultures, and in 11% when the gall was sterile. It is the authors' opinion that cholecystectomy shows an actual septic risk, even in a non-acute clinical stage.