[Postoperative medical icterus]

The onset of jaundice following a surgical operation sometimes raises difficult problems. It is rarely due to hemolysis, infective hepatitis or decomposated cirrhosis of the liver. One should seek as a routine hepatitis due to halotane. However the most frequent cause is "benign postoperative cholestasis". This variety of jaundice presents in the form of an icterus due to conjugated bilirubine with often a large increase in alkaline phosphatase levels. The ocurse is variable. Almost always due to severe surgical or septic trauma, accompanied by shock and/or anoxia, it raises difficult diagnostic problems. The clinical and physiopathological aspects of benign postoperative cholestasis are recalled. One should remember, above all, that this is not an autonomous clinical entity but the sign of local or general complications which should be sought carefully.