02-10-2008, 06:14 PM
A 66-year-old woman who has previously been healthy undergoes emergency surgery for a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm. Intraoperatively she requires 8 units of packed red blood cells to maintain her blood pressure and hematocrit. After surgery she is hemodynamically stable. On the third postoperative day she appears jaundiced, but abdominal examination is unremarkable and she is afebrile. Total serum bilirubin concentration at this time is 141 mol/L (8.3 mg/dL) [direct, 107 mol/L (6.3 mg/dL)]. Serum alkaline phosphatase level is 6 kat/L (360 U/L), and serum AST level is 0.85 kat/L (51 Karmen units/mL). The most likely explanation for the woman's jaundice is
A: a stone in the common bile duct
B: halothane hepatitis
C: posttransfusion hepatitis
D: acute hepatic infarct
E: benign intrahepatic cholestasis
A: a stone in the common bile duct
B: halothane hepatitis
C: posttransfusion hepatitis
D: acute hepatic infarct
E: benign intrahepatic cholestasis