Veno-occlusive disease of the liver and Indian childhood cirrhosis.

Cirrhosis of the liver is rare in childhood in the temperate zone and it is then usually due to some specific and traceable cause, such as Rhesus incompatibility, galactosaemia, congenital syphilis, in association with congenital abnormalities of the biliary apparatus, or following infective hepatitis. In most of the subtropics and tropics-at least according to present probably incomplete evidencecirrhosis in childhood is somewhat more common, but it is still infrequently seen, despite the fact that the condition may have a high incidence amongst adults. There appear to be only two widely separated regions of the world from which cirrhosis in childhood has been commonly reported in the medical literature-the West Indian island of Jamaica and the subcontinent of India, especially the eastern States of Madras and Bengal. As it has recently been possible for the writers collaboratively to have had experience in both regions, the present paper has been written in order to compare clinical and histological features of cirrhosis in childhood as seen in both Jamaica and Calcutta, West Bengal.