Rising Incidence of Peri-Operative Bactibilia among Patients Undergoing Complex Biliopancreatic Surgery

Background: Biliary instrumentation is associated with bactibilia and post-operative infection. Bactibilia incidence over time remains unknown. Patients and Methods: Consecutive patients with bilioenteric anastomosis surgery and available surveillance intra-operative bile duct cultures were evaluated for post-operative infection. The study period (2008–2019) was divided into quartiles to examine time-based trends. Results: Among 101 cases, 60 intra-operative bile duct cultures had no growth and 41 patients had documented at least one culture-positive isolate in their bile. Frequency of patients with culture-positive intra-operative bile increased over the study period (period 1, 1/28, 3.6% vs. period 2, 7/21, 33.3% vs. period 3, 15/26, 57.7% vs. period 4, 18/26, 69.2%; p