Cefotaxime concentration in the bile and wall of the gallbladder

Abstract

Cefotaxime concentrations in the bile of five subjects with a biliary cannula and receiving an intramuscular injection of 500 mg of cefotaxime every 8 h, were most often of the order of 2 mg/l in samples collected in the first 2 h following the injection and less than 1 mg/l in the subsequent 6 h. They reached 33.7 to 82.4 mg/l in the bile collected from the gallbladder of five subjects during cholecystectomy, after four intravenous injections of 1 g (1 g every 6 h). The levels measured in the wall of the gallbladder were low, of the order of 1 mg/l in the body of the gallbladder and often below detectable level in the neck of the gallbladder. Although the levels recorded were low, they were in general higher than the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of cefotaxime against the Gram-negative organisms that are most often responsible for biliary infections.