Why painless jaundice

Patients with medical jaundice will have yellowing of the skin, without dark urine or light-coloured stools. Medical jaundice can be related to:. All these types of jaundice lead to an abnormal increase of bilirubin, causing the yellowing of the skin. Malignancy causing complete blockage of bile can result in significant itching due to accumulation of bile pigments within the skin, and malnutrition as bile is part of the digestive system.

Read on to find out more about symptoms of obstructive jaundice and its treatment options. Please do not disregard the professional advice of your physician. Font size. User name field is required Password field is required. Forgot password? Don't have an account? Sign up! News Video. Welcome back! Set font size. Obstructive Jaundice: What Causes It?

Digestive System. The Department of Hepato-pancreato-biliary and Transplant Surgery at Singapore General Hospital explains the types of obstructive jaundice and its causes. Total Shares. This may result from:. Difficulties can arise with overlapping of diseases such as autoimmune hepatitis with primary biliary cirrhosis PBC and autoimmune hepatitis with hepatitis C.

See separate Abnormal Liver Function Tests article. It is usually easy to differentiate pre-hepatic causes of jaundice from hepatic and posthepatic.

It is more difficult to differentiate hepatic and posthepatic, as they often co-exist eg, obstructive jaundice with biliary cirrhosis. In jaundice, the essential and rapid differentiation of the main causes hepatitis, biliary stasis, haemolysis, resolution of haematoma or congenital causes can often be achieved by performing the following investigations;.

More investigations listed with occasional notes on interpretation of results will be necessary to allow further diagnostic differentiation:. This will depend on the diagnosis and cause of the jaundice in each individual case but factors to consider here include managing any pruritus that may be present - including lifestyle and dietary advice and cholestyramine treatment.

Am Fam Physician. Scand J Gastroenterol. Crum NF ; Epstein Barr virus hepatitis: case series and review. South Med J. Handb Exp Pharmacol.

Suppiah A, Perry EP ; Jaundice as a presentation of phenol induced hepatotoxocity following injection sclerotherapy for haemorrhoids. Worthington J, Chapman R ; Primary sclerosing cholangitis. Orphanet J Rare Dis. J Formos Med Assoc. Tunnemann J, Easterbrook JR, Firth J, et al ; Management of acute pancreatitis: a comparative audit of clinical practice against the recommendations of the british society of gastroenterology.

Br J Surg. Ann Surg Oncol. Hosp Med. Access your subscriptions. Free access to newly published articles. Purchase access. Rent article Rent this article from DeepDyve. Access to free article PDF downloads. Save your search. Customize your interests. Create a personal account or sign in to:. Privacy Policy. Make a comment.