Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributing Authors
- Preface to the Third Edition
- Preface to the First Edition
- SECTION I PATHOPHYSIOLOGY OF PEDIATRIC LIVER DISEASE
- SECTION II CHOLESTATIC LIVER DISEASES
- 9 Approach to the Infant with Cholestasis
- 10 Medical and Nutritional Management of Cholestasis in Infants and Children
- 11 Neonatal Hepatitis and Congenital Infections
- 12 Biliary Atresia and Other Disorders of the Extrahepatic Bile Ducts
- 13 Neonatal Jaundice and Disorders of Bilirubin Metabolism
- 14 Familial Hepatocellular Cholestasis
- 15 Alagille Syndrome
- 16 Diseases of the Gallbladder in Infancy, Childhood, and Adolescence
- SECTION III HEPATITIS AND IMMUNE DISORDERS
- SECTION IV METABOLIC LIVER DISEASE
- SECTION V OTHER CONDITIONS AND ISSUES IN PEDIATRIC HEPATOLOGY
- Index
- Plate section
- References
12 - Biliary Atresia and Other Disorders of the Extrahepatic Bile Ducts
from SECTION II - CHOLESTATIC LIVER DISEASES
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributing Authors
- Preface to the Third Edition
- Preface to the First Edition
- SECTION I PATHOPHYSIOLOGY OF PEDIATRIC LIVER DISEASE
- SECTION II CHOLESTATIC LIVER DISEASES
- 9 Approach to the Infant with Cholestasis
- 10 Medical and Nutritional Management of Cholestasis in Infants and Children
- 11 Neonatal Hepatitis and Congenital Infections
- 12 Biliary Atresia and Other Disorders of the Extrahepatic Bile Ducts
- 13 Neonatal Jaundice and Disorders of Bilirubin Metabolism
- 14 Familial Hepatocellular Cholestasis
- 15 Alagille Syndrome
- 16 Diseases of the Gallbladder in Infancy, Childhood, and Adolescence
- SECTION III HEPATITIS AND IMMUNE DISORDERS
- SECTION IV METABOLIC LIVER DISEASE
- SECTION V OTHER CONDITIONS AND ISSUES IN PEDIATRIC HEPATOLOGY
- Index
- Plate section
- References
Summary
Biliary atresia and related disorders of the biliary tract, such as choledochal cysts, must be considered in the differential diagnosis of prolonged conjugated hyperbilirubinemia in the newborn (neonatal cholestasis). In this chapter, we review the current status of diagnosis and management of these disorders, as well as advances in the intriguing quest for an understanding of their pathogenesis.
OVERVIEW
Neonatal hepatobiliary diseases, including biliary atresia, choledochal cysts, and “idiopathic” neonatal hepatitis, have historically been viewed as a continuum – a gradation of manifestations of a basic underlying disease process in which giant cell transformation of hepatocytes is strongly associated with inflammation at any level of the hepatobiliary tract. These disease entities may be polar end points of a common initial insult, as originally stated in the unifying hypothesis of Landing [1]. The end result represents the sequela of the inflammatory process at the primary site of injury. Landing suggested that this inflammatory process may injure bile duct epithelial cells, leading to either duct obliteration (biliary atresia) or weakening of the bile duct wall with subsequent dilatation (choledochal cyst). The lesions may be dependent on the stage of fetal development when the injury occurs and the site within the developing hepatobiliary tree at which the injury occurs [1, 2]. A relationship of the pathogenesis of these obstructive cholangiopathies of infancy to the process of development is suggested by the association with disorders of situs determination such as the polysplenia syndrome and the observation of the so-called ductal plate malformation within the liver of a few patients with biliary atresia.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Liver Disease in Children , pp. 247 - 269Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007
References
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