A clinical study on the postoperative prognosis of 168 cases of surgical hyperbilirubinemia.

It's universally acknowledged that the mortality rate of postoperative patients with obstructive jaundice is higher than that of the non-icteric. Opinions, however, differ as to whether the mortality rate goes up with the worsening of jaundice. Some even regard hyperbilirubinemia as a contraindication in operation. The present article through a clinical research of 168 cases suggested that postoperative mortality registered no increase because of bilirubin level in plasma and the degree of severity of bilirubinemia was not a major factor affecting the postoperative prognosis. The 4 preoperative complications: hypoproteinemia, hepatocirrhosis, portal hypertension and acute cholangitis were responsible for postoperative prognosis, the conclusion is hyperbilirubinemia is not a contraindication in operation. A great portion of the patients should be given active operation to intercept persistent injury on liver and prevent the occurrence of acute cholangitis. To reduce the postoperative mortality, the treatment to be adopted is not to arrange biliary drainage before operation but to improve the patients general conditions by eliminating the complications mentioned above.