Biliary obstruction and susceptibility to biliary sepsis in rats

The effect of retrograde intrabiliary (RI) injection of E. coli was studied in Sprague-Dawley rats with biliary obstruction of different duration (3 days; 2, 4, and 6 weeks). By the injection of 10(5) colony-forming units (CFU) immediately after occlusion of the common bile duct (CBD), 15 of 18 normal rats survived without clinical signs of infection. In contrast, six of 11 animals in 3-day obstruction (P = 0.04), seven of 12 in 2-week obstruction (P = 0.02), ten of 12 in both 4-week and 6-week obstruction (P = 0.0004) died of E. coli sepsis after injection of the same amount of bacteria. Animals with longstanding jaundice (4 and 6 weeks) were more susceptible than those with a shorter duration of jaundice (3 days and 2 weeks, P = 0.04). The results warrant the early decompression of the biliary tract in biliary obstruction.