LYMPHATIC TRANSPORT OF BACTERIA IN SURGICAL INFECTION

Abstract

The lymphatics have often been considered the final common pathway to the systemic circulation for tissue fluids and protein. Little significance has been placed on the system as the common pathway for delivery of bacteria to the systemic circulation and the reticuloendothelial system from an infection site or even from the normally contaminated organ manipulated at the time of a surgical procedure. Infectious complications following surgical manipulation constitute one of the major causes of postoperative morbidity and mortality. The recovery of viable bacteria from thoracic duct lymph of patients undergoing thoracic duct cannulation for investigation of the etiology of jaundice, enteritis and peritonitis caused us to further investigate this route of dissemination of organisms in surgical inflammatory diseases of the abdomen.