Jaundice is a liver disease in which skin and eyes become yellow. It occurs when some of the liver fluid, bile, backs up into the blood stream and gets deposited in the deeper layers of the skin.

Jaundice is best seen in natural daylight and may not be apparent under artificial lighting. The degree of coloration depends upon the concentration of the bile pigments in the blood, its rate of tissue diffusion and the absorption and binding of bile pigments by the tissue. The bile pigments enter the tissue fluids and are absorbed more readily where there is already inflammation and edema.

The bile produced by the liver attacks fatty substances in the small intestine and partially breaks them down so that they can be more readily absorbed. Most of the bile salts are reabsorbed by the blood stream. But those which are eliminated, give the faces brownish color. Once in the blood, the bile pigments are re-circulated to the liver and removed by the liver cells for breakdown and excretion.

The most common cause of jaundice is the extra secretion of bile by the liver. Congenital defects that impair the removal of bile pigments may also cause jaundice. Some liver diseases may also cause malfunctioning of the liver cells, which would explain the presence of extra liver cells in the blood stream.

Jaundice is usually of two types: Retention jaundice and regurgitation jaundice.

In retention jaundice, the pigments are retained in the blood stream because of some removal problem. In regurgitation jaundice, there is an abnormal leak, back into the bloodstream after it has been removed from the blood or directly from the bile ducts.

Some of the diseases that can cause jaundice are anemia, congestion in the circulatory system, pneumonia, degeneration of the liver cells, scarring of the liver tissue and tumors in the liver and bile ducts.