[Cholestatic icterus and "shock liver" resulting from disseminated intravascular coagulation in newborns and babies (author's transl)].

The simultaneous occurrence of severe bacterial, especially urinary tract infections and cholostatic icterus in newborn and young infants, is a wellknown phenomenon. Since the pathogenetic principle is unknown, such types of icterus are described as "idiopathic", "septic" or "septic-toxic". However, in recent years an increasing number of pointers seems to indicate that cholostatic jaundice, being a polyaetiological syndrome, can be closely linked in respect of time and cause, with disseminated intra vascular coagulation. It would suggest itself to assume that pathogenetically speaking a severe infection (or some other triggering cause) may lead to shock which, in turn, produces an intravascular consumption reaction, resulting in severe disturbances of microcirculation in the liver and hence in disordered liver function which is clinically manifest in the form of a cholastatic icterus. Among the patients treated at the Unversity Paediatric Hospital at Freiburg, a total of 31 mostly male children--30 babies and one schoolchild--was seen in whom this causal chain is highly likely.