[Assessment of gallbladder motility in patients with alcoholic hepatic cirrhosis after a fatty meal. A real-time ultrasonography study].

Gallbladder emptying after fatty meal administration was investigated by real-time ultrasonography in 10 patients with alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver, and 10 normal controls. Gallbladder volume was measured using the sum of cylinders method before and 5', 15', 20', 30', 60', 90', and 120' after fatty meal administration. Patients with liver cirrhosis presented the gallbladder volume significantly increased after 15' and 20', and significantly reduced after 60' and 90' in respect to controls. A significant difference was found between the groups in the two curves, patients showing a retarded contraction of gallbladder. The mechanism for sluggish gallbladder emptying in liver cirrhosis is unknown, however impaired emptying with bile stasis provides a potential pathophysiology basis for the high frequency of cholelithiasis in this disease.