THE PREOPERATIVE AND POSTOPERATIVE ADMINISTRATION OF VITAMIN K

Studies on the factors concerned in the production of hemorrhagic diathesis characterizing patients who have jaundice have been discussed in previous papers.¹ Numerous other investigators have demonstrated definitely that cholemic bleeding is caused by a deficiency of prothrombin in the circulating blood and that both this deficiency and the hemorrhagic state associated with it can be corrected by the administration of concentrates containing the fat-soluble antihemorrhagic vitamin K, together with bile salts to insure absorption of the vitamin. The early clinical application of this knowledge concerning vitamin K was begun independently in the United States by Warner and his associates² at the University of Iowa and by us, and abroad by Dam and his co-worker³ in Copenhagen.

During the past two years we have continued our observations on this problem, several lines of investigation having been pursued. We have endeavored to determine the reliability of vitamin K