The incidence and causes of postoperative jaundice. A prospective study.

Jaundice often complicates recovery after surgery. We have studied 180 patients undergoing 218 major operations and found an incidence of 3.7% severe jaundice and 16.5% mild jaundice. The causes of the jaundice were diverse, but the most important was a bilirubin overload (primarily from blood transfusion) which could not be excreted effectively by a liver whose cellular metabolism was disturbed. We found no evidence of a relationship between halothane and liver damage.