The combination of liver clearance of I131 rose bengal from the blood and sequential liver scanning supplemented by percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography when indicated has proven to be very helpful in the differential diagnosis of surgical versus nonsurgical jaundice, and in a number of cases has given us information that was not readily available in any other way. This approach has been invaluable in obviating surgery when not indicated, and in giving the surgeon important preoperative information on which to base his surgical approach.