Hemobilia (Biliary Tract Hemorrhage): History, Pathology, Diagnosis and Treatment.

Abstract

This slender volume by Professor Sandblom has much to recommend. It is a lucid and beautifully written compendium of a condition that has obviously been the author's careerlong interest and hobby. He describes hemobilia as the "neglected syndrome" with the diagnostic triad of gastrointestinal bleeding, biliary colic, and jaundice. As recently as 1948 only eight cases were recorded in the modern literature and he has now collected and analyzed over 500 cases. Every general surgeon who reads this book is bound to recall a patient or two who had this problem and reflect that he probably would have handled the situation better had he read this volume beforehand. The longest chapter is devoted to the history of this syndrome. It is a fascinating, beautifully written and illustrated essay. It leads the reader from 1654 when Glisson first described the condition in a young nobleman wounded in a duel to 1895