Jaundice is not actually a disease, but a manifestation of some diseases (we call it a clinical manifestation). Jaundice is defined as hyperbilirubinemia, which is an increase in bilirubin in the blood, resulting in yellowing of the sclera, skin, mucous membranes, and other tissues and body fluids. When the serum bilirubin concentration is 17.1 to 34.2 umol (1 to 2 mg/d1), and the jaundice is not visible to the naked eye, it is called occult jaundice. If the serum bilirubin concentration is higher than 34.2umol/L (2mg/d1), then the jaundice is dominant. The most common manifestation is yellowing of the eyes and skin. The following are the common causes and classification of jaundice: 1, excessive bilirubin production, mostly due to increased red blood cell destruction, and hemolytic jaundice. 2, hepatocellular jaundice: Because the metabolism of bilirubin is completed in the liver, jaundice may also occur when the liver is diseased, including various hepatitis, congenital defects in liver cells and other causes of liver damage can occur. 3, obstructive jaundice: mechanical obstruction of the intrahepatic or extrahepatic biliary system occurs, affecting the excretion of bilirubin and leading to obstructive (obstructive) jaundice. The first two types of jaundice are generally internal diseases, and treatment is drug-based. In contrast, most obstructive jaundice requires surgical means to treat well, and medications do not achieve therapeutic results. Every year I encounter many patients with obstructive jaundice who are misdiagnosed as jaundice type hepatitis. These people not only suffer more pain, but also suffer financial losses, and some even lose the opportunity to cure the disease, so it is important to seek timely and accurate medical attention when you have jaundice. Once you find that your skin or sclera is yellow, or that your urine is also noticeably darker yellow, you must go to a regular hospital. Regardless of whether you go to the medical or surgical department first, the following tests should be done immediately: hepatitis virus marker test, liver function test, and ultrasound test. Liver function tests can probably determine whether the jaundice is obstructive or not. Since bilirubin is divided into direct bilirubin and indirect bilirubin, the possibility of biliary obstruction should be considered when direct bilirubin is predominantly elevated and accompanied by elevated alkaline phosphatase and other enzymes that react to bile duct obstruction. However, if the jaundice is severe, it is often not possible to determine whether the jaundice is obstructive from the liver function, and then imaging is required. Ultrasound examinations can approximate the presence of significant liver lesions and, more importantly, it can find out if there is biliary obstruction, and the test is painless and not very expensive. Hepatitis viral markers are used to find out if viral hepatitis is present. If once viral hepatitis is identified, then it is best to go to an infectious disease unit, or if there is no infectious disease unit go to a gastroenterology unit. If obstructive jaundice is suspected, the patient should immediately go to the hepatobiliary surgery department because biliary obstruction cannot be solved by medication, and if there is no hepatobiliary surgery department in the hospital where the patient is seen, the patient should go to the general surgery department. In my personal experience, there are more cases of delayed diagnosis of obstructive jaundice because many people consider hepatitis first when they find jaundice, and some doctors even treat jaundice as hepatitis without examination, which is not scientific. Therefore, I suggest that patients with jaundice should best be seen in hepatobiliary surgery, which treats a wider variety of liver diseases, after all. I don’t know if the above is easy to understand, but it is just a general statement. If you have any questions, you can leave me a message and we can talk more.