Biliary Atresia: A mostly preventable disease?

Biliary atresia

Biliary atresia (BA) is a cholangiodestructive disease affecting biliary tract, which ultimately leads to cirrhosis, liver failure and death if not treated. The incidence is higher in Asian countries than in Europe. Up to 10% of cases have other congenital anomalies, such as polysplenia, asplenia, situs inversus, absence of inferior vena cava and pre-duodenal portal vein, for which we have coin...

Biliary atresia.

Biliary atresia is a neonatal obstructive cholangiopathy characterized by a fibrosclerosing obliteration of the extrahepatic bile duct that uniquely presents in the first months of life (1). The condition occurs in approximately 1 in 8,000 to 1 in 15,000 live births and accounts for 30% of all cases of cholestasis in young infants. Biliary atresia is the most frequent cause of chronic end-stage...

biliary atresia

Biliary atresia

Biliary atresia (BA) is a rare disease characterised by a biliary obstruction of unknown origin that presents in the neonatal period. It is the most frequent surgical cause of cholestatic jaundice in this age group. BA occurs in approximately 1/18,000 live births in Western Europe. In the world, the reported incidence varies from 5/100,000 to 32/100,000 live births, and is highest in Asia and t...

[Biliary atresia].

Extrahepatic biliary atresia (EHBA) is an inflammatory fibrosing process affecting the extrahepatic and intrahepatic biliary tree resulting in fibrous obliteration of the extrahepatic biliary tract, ductopenia of intrahepatic bile ducts, and biliary cirrhosis. EHBA is divided in a fetal, prenatal or embryonic, and a more common, perinatal form. The symptoms of the fetal form start shortly after...