Intragastric microbial colonization in common disease states of the stomach and duodenum.

Forty-nine patients undergoing elective or emergent gastric surgery have been included in this study. Gastric needle aspiration was performed at the time of surgery in each case, followed by qualitative aerobic and anaerobic bacteriologic analysis. In 18 patients undergoing elective operation for chronic nonobstructing duodenal ulcer a gastric microflora was present in only three patients and no postoperative wound infections were observed. In 29 of 31 patients, in the other groups of patients with bleeding or obstructing duodenal ulcer or in those with gastric ulcer or malignancy, intragastric micro-organisms were present. Six of the 7 postoperative wound infections which developed in these groups of patients were due to one of the same bacteria isolated at the time of original needle aspiration. It appears that the endogenous intragastric microflora is a significant factor in the development of postoperative wound sepsis following gastric resection, in those groups of patients with a compromise of their normal gastric antibacterial inhibitory mechanisms.