Operative liver biopsy abnormalities in patients with functional disorders of the biliary tract

The group of conditions variously termed biliary dyskinesia, acalculous cholecystitis, biliary pain without stones, or functional disorders of the biliary tract, is poorly defined clinically, and no consistent pathological abnormalities have been previously described in patients with this diagnosis. In this paper we report histological abnormalities encountered in operative live biopsies in such patients. The criteria for the diagnosis of a functional biliary tract disorders were: pain typical of biliary pain, negative results of investigations for organic biliary tract or other gastrointestinal disease, and reproduction of the patient's symptoms by cholecystokinin, or morphine, or both. Twenty of 45 patients with a presumptive diagnosis satisfied these criteria, and had a wedge liver biopsy at the time of operation. The 20 liver biopsy specimens were compared in a blind fashion with similar ones taken from patients having diagnostic laparotomies; patients with stones confined to the gallbladder; patients with gallstone pancreatitis; and patients with proven common bile duct stones. The biopsy findings were found to be similar to those in the latter two groups. Thus the abnormalities were similar to those found in partial or intermittent biliary obstruction, and it is suggested that they may be due to intermittent increases in biliary pressure.