Background Carcinomas of the ampulla of Vater (CAV) is a relatively rare malignant gastrointestinal tumor,and its postoperative prognostic factors have been well studied.However,as its first symptom,the impact of jaundice on the prognosis of CAV is not so clear.This study aims to explore the role of jaundice as a prognostic factor in patients undergoing radical treatment for CAV.Methods The clinical data of 195 patients with CAV who were treated in the Cancer Hospital,Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College,from January 1989 to January 2013 were retrospectively analyzed.Among them,170 patients with pathologically confirmed CAV entered the statistical analysis.Jaundice was defined as a total bilirubin serum concentration of ≥3 mg/dl.Result Of these 170 patients,99 (58.20％) had jaundice at presentation.Jaundice showed significant correlations with tumor differentiation (P=0.002),lymph node metastasis (P=0.016),pancreatic invasion (P=0.000),elevated preoperative CA199 (P=0.000),depth of invasion (P=0.000),and tumor stage (P=0.000).There were more patients with pancreatic invasion in the jaundice group than in the non-jaundice group.Also,lymph node metastasis was more common in the jaundice group (n=26) than in the non-jaundice group (n=8).The non-jaundice group had significant better overall 5-year disease-free survival (72.6％) than the jaundice group (41.2％,P=0.013).Jaundice was not significantly correlated with the postoperative bleeding (P=-0.050).Conclusions Jaundice in patients with CAV often predicts more advanced stages and poorer prognoses.Pancreatic invasion and lymph node metastasis are more common in CAV patients with jaundice.Jaundice is not a risk factor for postoperative bleeding and preoperative biliary drainage cannot reduce the incidence of postoperative complications.