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Abstract
Background. Biliary atresia can be treated by portoenterostomy, which is primarily palliative,
or by liver transplantation, which is primarily curative. The purpose of this study
was to determine the long-term outcome of liver transplantation for the treatment
of biliary atresia.
Methods. During an 8-year period, 45 patients who underwent liver transplantation for biliary
atresia and 10 patients who were referred to our center for portoenterostomy were
retrospectively analyzed.
Results. No patient with biliary atresia died awaiting liver transplantation. The waiting
time for all patients was 36.7 ± 42.8 days. Thirty-four patients (75.6%) required
one transplant, whereas 11 patients (24.4%) required 17 retransplants. Twenty-two
patients (48.9%) required 39 reoperations (1.8 per patient). There were 4.9 infectious
episodes, 2.2 rejection episodes, and 4.4 readmissions per patient. However, 91% of
reoperations, 80% of infections, and 78% of rejections occurred within 6 months of
transplantation. The overall 7-year actuarial patient and graft survival for patients
with biliary atresia was 86.2% and 62.7%, respectively.
Conclusions. Our results indicate that long-term patient survival after liver transplantation
for biliary atresia is excellent. However, portoenterostomy continues to have an initial
complementary but limited long-term role in the treatment of infants with biliary
atresia.
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Article info
Footnotes
☆Presented at the Fiftieth Annual Meeting of the Central Surgical Association, Cincinnati, Ohio, March 4–6, 1993.
Identification
Copyright
© 1993 Published by Elsevier Inc.
