Routine bile collection for microbiological analysis during cholangiography and its impact on the management of cholangitis.

Background: Antibiotic treatment of cholangitis is often insufficient because of inappropriate antibiotic use or bacterial resistance.

Objective: To evaluate the role of routine bile collection during endoscopic retrograde cholangiography or percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography for microbiological analysis in the antibiotic management of cholangitis and to identify risk factors of bacteriobilia.

Design: Prospective, observational, diagnostic study.

Setting: Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.

Patients And Intervention: This study involved 243 consecutive patients undergoing endoscopic retrograde cholangiography/percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography for biliary complications after orthotopic liver transplantation (27%), malignancy (27%), primary sclerosing cholangitis (15%), benign strictures (11%), and choledocholithiasis (8%).

Main Outcome Measurements: Microbiological examination of bile samples.

Results: Patients with biliary stents or who were receiving repeated interventions after orthotopic liver transplantation were at increased risk of bacteriobilia (P < .05). The rate of gram-positive monomicrobial infection was higher in patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis (P < .01). In 40 examinations, patients presented with preprocedural cholangitis although they were receiving antibiotics. According to bile culture results, the antibiotic treatment was modified to a more specific therapy in 72.5% of patients. In patients who developed cholangitis after endoscopic retrograde cholangiography (27 examinations), specific antibiotic treatment was started or refined in 67% of cases, based on bile culture results.

Limitations: Contamination of samples during intervention cannot be totally excluded.

Conclusion: Orthotopic liver transplantation, biliary stenting, and repeated interventions are risk factors of bacteriobilia. In our patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis, gram-positive monomicrobial infections were more common. A bile sample collected during cholangiography for microbiological analysis is a simple, potentially valuable, diagnostic tool in patients with cholangitis. Each center should recognize its own patterns of infection to ensure ideal targeted therapy.