RESIDUAL HEPATIC DAMAGE IN CATARRHAL JAUNDICE AS DETERMINED BY THE BILIRUBIN EXCRETION TEST

Patients who have had catarrhal jaundice not infrequently manifest digestive complaints long after the attack of jaundice has subsided. The fact that on clinical investigation the patients present no detectable abnormalities has led to the impression that the symptoms are functional. An attempt to inquire whether residual hepatic damage rather than psychogenic factors may be responsible for these symptoms has led to this investigation.

By catarrhal or common infective hepatic jaundice is meant the condition as it is commonly understood and as it is described by Holt and Howland¹ and Rolleston and McNee.² It is a disease which is usually benign and probably caused by some unknown infection of the hepatobiliary system. It occurs sporadically or in epidemics independently of, or in association with, an acute infectious process. The anatomic features are not well known, since few cases which may safely be regarded as of this type come