What Are the Symptoms of Jaundice?

Jaundice is a medical condition in which the skin, white part of the eye, and mucous membranes turns yellow due to high bilirubin level, a yellowish-orange bile pigment. Several factors can cause jaundice, including hepatitis, gallstones, and tumours. Read on to know more.

What is Jaundice?

Jaundice is a condition in which the skin, sclera (whites of the eyes) and mucous membranes turn yellow. This yellow color is caused by a high level of bilirubin, a yellow-orange bile pigment. Bile is fluid secreted by the liver. Bilirubin is formed from the breakdown of red blood cells. When bilirubin levels are high in the blood, it causes the skin and eyes to have a yellow colour.

In adults, jaundice is usually a symptom of liver disease because damaged liver cells cannot process bilirubin, which then goes into the blood, causing jaundice. In most cases, jaundice in adults does not require treatment.

Several factors can cause liver damage, including viral infections like hepatitis A, hepatitis B, cirrhosis (which is scarring of the liver), excessive consumption of alcohol, autoimmune diseases like primary biliary cholangitis, some medicines, hereditary conditions such as Dubin-Johnson syndrome and Gilbert syndrome, and pregnancy.

Various conditions, such as gallstones, obstruction of the biliary tract, pancreatic, liver/gallbladder cancer, pancreatitis, lymphoma, and surgery can cause jaundice.

Symptoms of Jaundice

Jaundice can occur without any noticeable symptoms and may be discovered accidentally. The severity of symptoms depends on the underlying causes and how quickly or slowly the disease develops. Jaundice primarily affects the colour of your skin and the whites of your eyes, causing them to appear yellowish. Therefore, the primary symptom of jaundice is the yellowing of the eyes and skin. Other common symptoms of jaundice include:

• pale stools

• dark urine

• itchiness

• fatigue

• abdominal pain

• weight loss

• vomiting

• fever

• loss of appetite

• mental changes such as tiredness or confusion

• Flu-like symptoms

• Chronic hepatitis or inflammation of the liver

• Pyoderma gangrenosum (a type of skin disease)

• Acute hepatitis A, B or C

• Polyarthralgias (inflammation of the joints)

If the jaundice is caused by pancreatic or biliary tract cancers, the most common symptom is abdominal pain.

In newborns, jaundice usually starts at the head and moves down to the chest, abdomen, arms, and legs.