THE NATURE OF THE BLEEDING IN JAUNDICE

Excerpt

The cause of hemorrhage in the patient with jaundice remains a clinical enigma. Although the incident of serious bleeding is relatively low, the gravity of the problem lies in the fact that its occurrence cannot be predicted with any degree of certainty either clinically or by means of the common laboratory methods now available. In recent years the subject has been discussed repeatedly, and thorough historical summaries have been presented by Judd, Snell and Hoerner,¹ Carr and Foote,² Moss³ and others. No attempts will therefore be made to give another comprehensive review of this problem. My purpose in this paper is to present experimental observations made in studying the coagulation of blood which furnish significant information on the nature of cholemic bleeding and to offer practical suggestions for the management of the jaundiced patient.

For the proper understanding and evaluation of these new observations, a short and