Meaning and Definition of Jaundice

Definition of jaundice

The yellowing that can take the skin, eyes and mucous membranes, due to the accumulation of bilirubin in these tissues is known as jaundice.
Jaundice is not a disease in itself, but rather constitutes a manifestation of various disorders, covering both liver lesions and blood problems that lead to the destruction of red blood cells.
This coloration is due to what
The yellowish tint is due to the elevation of a substance known as bilirubin levels, it's a product that originates in the body by decomposition of red blood cells. Under normal conditions this substance travels through the blood to liver where joins a series of proteins that facilitate their elimination by the bile.
A cause of jaundice is the increase in the production of bilirubin, which can occur in any condition that is capable of breaking the red blood cells. This occurs in the case of disorders that affect the form of these cells, such as thalassaemia and sickle cell disease, the latter is also known as sickle cell disease since red blood cells take the shape of a sickle that they bind in the capillaries leading to it are destroyed.
Some parasites that infect red blood cells are able to break these cells once they manage to culminate their multiplication, thus passing into the blood where it will give continuity to this process, this is characteristic of diseases such as malaria.
It is also possible to occur a jaundice when there is an obstruction in the Elimination of bile, what happens in diseases of the liver. The most common case occurs in the hepatitis where the inflammatory process of the liver is able to block the drainage of bile, also it is common in people who have stones in the gallbladder when these clogged its duct drainage or common bile duct, as well as in the case of liver cirrhosis and the presence of tumors of the liver or pancreas head. It is also possible occurring parasites, especially the ascaris, migration from the intestine to the bile ducts which blocked these ducts.
Jaundice may be accompanied by other annoyances
The increase of bilirubin in tissues is capable of producing a very annoying symptom such as itching, lasting as long as persists jaundice. Equally obstruction in the removal of the passage of bile to the intestine makes a characteristic sign of liver diseases happen as it is the fact that urine turns very dark while the feces become clearer.
Jaundice in the newborn
During the first hours of life, it is possible that the babies develop jaundice, occurs as a result of the elevation of bilirubin levels due to factors as the type of blood incompatibility ABO as Rh that occur when the mother and father are of different blood groups, especially when the father is RH-positive factor and the mother is Rh negative.
This condition requires hospitalization and treatment of the child, since elevated levels of bilirubin are capable of producing permanent injury in the central nervous system.