Patient's question:
My baby is now six months old. Sometimes she cries for a while, and I'm not sure where it hurts. She was diagnosed with biliary atresia at a hospital in Shanghai and needs a liver transplant. Could you please ask the doctor what are the symptoms of biliary atresia?Doctor's answer:
Biliary atresia is a condition where the intrahepatic and extrahepatic bile ducts are obstructed, which can lead to cholestatic cirrhosis and ultimately liver failure. It is one of the most important digestive surgical diseases in pediatric surgery and also the most common indication for pediatric liver transplantation. Liver transplantation is the only effective treatment for biliary atresia that has progressed to the end stage. In pediatric liver transplantation (for patients under 18 years old), biliary atresia accounts for nearly half of the cases, with approximately 90% of cases occurring in children under one year old.