Cholecystectomy in patients with AIDS: clinicopathologic correlations in 107 cases

The etiologic and clinical features of cholecystisis in infection due to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) were studies retrospectively. The charts and histopathologic specimens of 136 HIV-infected patients who underwent cholecystectomy between February 1987 and May 1993 at a large tertiary care center were reviewed. Opportunistic pathogens infecting the 107 patients with AIDS included microsporidia (eight cases-- Enterocytozoon bieneusi in six and Septata intestinalis in two); cytomegalovirus alone (six cases); Cryptosporidium alone (eight cases); cytomegalovirus plus Cryptosporidum (15 cases); and Pneumocystis carinii and Isospora belli (one case each). In addition, histopathologic changes characteristic of Kaposi's sarcoma were seen in one case. Thirty-eight patients with AIDS had acalculous cholecystitis for which no etiologic agent was found. Twenty-eight AIDS patients had cholelithiasis, six with coexistent opportunistic gallbladder infection. In the 107 AIDS patients, no specific symptom was found to be predictive of opportunistic infection of the gallbladder, but such infection was significantly associated with an abnormal abdominal ultrasound (P = .017) and with nonvisualization of the gallbladder by radionucleotide biliary scan (P < .001).