Postoperative jaundice in children

At the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, during the 23-year period 1957 to 1979, 165400 anaesthetics were administered. Almost all of the patients anaesthetised during this time would have been exposed to halothane. Seventy-four patients became jaundiced for the first time in the post-operative period. Halothane-associated hepatitis was excluded as the cause of the postoperative jaundice in all but two of the 74 patients. In these two patients in whom the diagnosis of halothane-associated hepatitis was possible the hepatitic illness was mild and both patients made an uneventful recovery. In this survey the risk of a patient becoming jaundiced due to halothane associated hepatitis was greater than 1 in 82000. It would seem that in children halothane can be used whenever it is warranted and can be used repeatedly.