Obstructive jaundice is a surgical condition that affects all age groups mostly to the above 18 individuals. This condition can lead to high morbidity and mortality if not early diagnosed and treated. It remains the common cause of surgical consultations globally accounting for 8-10/100,000 and 242/1000 annually in China and Saudi Arabia respectively. Clinicopathological and radiological investigations are the key to the disease diagnosis. Cholelithiasis and cancer head of pancreas are common causes of obstructive jaundice. Although the diagnosis and treatments of obstructive jaundice is advancing; some patients get poor treatment outcome such as SSI, peritonitis and long hospital stay with some of them dying. To determine the clinicopathological, surgical management and early postoperative outcome among obstructive jaundice inpatients at KCMC from March 2020 to March 2023. A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted using secondary data from hospital records, EHMS system, surgery admission and theater registry books. All files of patients aged 18 years and above from these registry books with a diagnosis of obstructive jaundice from March 2020 to March 2023 were included. The obtained data were collected using the questionnaire then entered and analyzed using SPSS version 26. A total of 101 patients were studied, with the male to female ratio of 1.2:1. Cancer head of pancreas was the commonest malignant cause of obstructive jaundice where as choledocholithiasis was the commonest benign cause. Most of the clinical presentations were abdominal pain 47.6%, yellowish discoloration of the mucous membrane, eyes and skin by 43.6% and itching by 6.9%. Both laboratory investigations and radiological imaging were done which showed elevated liver enzymes 68.3%, low Hb 46.5%, histopathology 62.4%; benign and malignant obstructive jaundice cause by 33.7% and 46.5% respectively. Among all the patients who were surgically managed 29.7% had palliative triple bypass, 14.8% had laparoscopic cholecystectomy and 14.8% had CBD Exploration. The overall complication rate was 50.5%; Death 16.5% surgical site infections 13.9% and long hospital stay 9.9%. Obstructive jaundice in our setting is more common in males where malignant causes being high in the list

The authors have declared no competing interest.

The author received no specific funding for this work

I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained.

Not Applicable

The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below:

Research clearance was obtained from KCMUCo Clinical Research Ethical Review Committee with an Ethical clearance certificate number: PG 128/2022. The permission to extract patient data from hospital records was obtained from KCMC hospital administration. The permission to conduct a study was obtained from the head of general surgery department. Patient’s confidentiality was maintained by the use of index numbers and the collected information was only used for the purpose intended by the study.

I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals.

Not Applicable

I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance).

Not Applicable

I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable.

Not Applicable

No legal or ethical restriction to data availability