HOMOLOGOUS SERUM JAUNDICE

Abstract

Recognition is being given increasingly to the problem of hepatitis following the prophylactic or therapeutic administration of human blood and its products. Recent papers have described the clinical aspects of the disease and have reviewed the literature.¹ As yet, no method of prevention of homologous serum jaundice has been devised, and its relation to infectious hepatitis requires further clarification. The available evidence indicates that the icterogenic agent of both diseases is probably a virus.^1c The present paper has two purposes: first, to report cases of homologous serum jaundice which were observed during the year ending August 1945 in the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in order to emphasize the importance of this disease, and second, to discuss the problem of serum jaundice and possible methods for its prevention in the operation of a hospital blood bank. METHODS AND MATERIAL A description of the operation of the blood bank which has