[Malignant obstructive jaundice. Current status of surgical therapy].

424 patients with malignant jaundice were treated from 1964 to 1976. 152 carcinomas of the extrahepatic biliary tract and 272 carcinomas of the duodenopancreatic region were reported. Initial symptoms of cancer of this region are often vague, so that physicians must employ a high index of suspicion if earlier diagnosis is to be effected. Most of the carcinomas of pancreas and the biliary tract are unresectable because of the early dissemination. The dismal of the malignant tumors of the biliary tract is unchanged during the last 50 years but survival rates are better in carcinoma of the duodeno-pancreatic region.