Cholangitis overview

Overview
Cholangitis is a clinically defined syndrome of fever, right upper quadrant pain and jaundice caused by infection of bile and inflammation of the biliary tree, usually due to obstruction and stasis. Cholangitis was first described as a life-threatening disorder in 1877 by Charcot. In 1955, Reynolds and Dargan recognized that septic shock and mental status changes portended a poor outcome. (Reynolds’s Pentad).