Bile composition in bilharzial hepatic fibrosis.

At operation for haematemesis in bilharzial hepatic fibrosis, the gallbladder was always found to be diseased but devoid of stones. This led to a study of gallbladder bile composition in a group of bilharzial patients and comparison with a group of cholelithiasis patients. When values for biliary lipid composition were plotted on triangular coordinates, both groups fell well outside the line of maximum cholesterol solubility. The bilharzia group had significantly more cholesterol and less phospholipid than the gallstone group. The absence of stones in patients with bilharzial hepatic fibrosis was possibly due to their early demise and the suggestion is that, in this condition, it is the disease of the gallbladder itself which renders the bile lithogenic.