Study on mechanism of onset of endogenous endotoxemia during obstructive jaundice--with special reference to involvement of biliary infection

To clarify how biliary infections affect onset of endogenous endotoxemia during obstructive jaundice, I tried to review the clinical result of 104 cases of obstructive jaundice, and conducted a Limulus test of portal and peripheral blood in 20 cases of obstructive jaundice and an animal study using 38 rabbits. In cases of obstructive jaundice complicated by biliary infections, clinical improvement of jaundice became significantly unfavorable, and the outcome of surgical operation was significantly inferior to the cases without biliary infections. The endotoxin positive rate in the portal blood of obstructive jaundice was 65% (13 of 20 cases), among which 10 cases (79.6%) was also positive in the peripheral blood. Of these 10 cases, 7 cases manifested endogenous endotoxemia with no infectious focus, and prognosis of these cases was poor. The endotoxin positive rate in portal blood of obstructive jaundice group was also significantly higher than that of non-jaundice group in animal study, and when the reticuloendothelial system was blocked, the endotoxin positive rate in the peripheral blood showed an increasing tendency. In the animal group with experimental cholangitis, all the endotoxin positive animals in the portal blood were also positive in the peripheral blood. This result suggests that biliary infections accelerate a decrease in the reticuloendothelial function during obstructive jaundice. From these results, endogenous endotoxemia seems to affect the onset of various complications during obstructive jaundice and unfavorable prognosis.