Diagnosis of Extrahepatic Obstructive Jaundice by means of Ultrasonotomography

differential diagnosis from intrahepatic cholestasis

Abstract

Ultrasonotomography was conducted on a total of 100 patients with marked jaundice, consisting of 55 with surgical jaundice (extrahepatic obstructive jaundice) and 45 with medical jaundice (intrahepatic cholestasis and hepatocellular jaundice). As a result, it was demonstrated that such findings as remarkable enlargement of the gall bladder, dilatation of the choledochus and dilatation of the intrahepatic bile duct were specific to extrahepatic obstructive juandice.
A fairly accurate differentiation between extrahepatic obstructive jaundice and intrahepatic cholestasis, which is of utmost importance in the clinical practice, could be attained by this method.
In the of extrahepatic obstructive jaundice due to cancer of pancreas head, in particular, a more accurate differential diagnosis could be made.
The author had an impression that in future ultrasonotomography without physical troubles of the patients and side effects could be expected as a method of first choice in the diagnosis of jaundice.