What to do if an infant has biliary atresia?

What should we do if an infant has biliary atresia? When an infant is just born, there may be certain defects in his body. Infant biliary atresia is one of them. Parents should pay attention to this situation and let their children receive treatment in time. The child's health must not be damaged, and he must not be unable to grow up healthily, or have serious problems with his body. Therefore, attention should be paid to the treatment of infant biliary atresia.

Congenital biliary atresia is one of the main causes of obstructive jaundice in the neonatal period. It is not uncommon. The incidence rate in Japan and my country is higher than in Europe and the United States, and the cause is still unclear. In the past, it was mostly believed to be a congenital abnormality of bile duct development. In recent years, most scholars believe that biliary atresia is very similar to neonatal hepatitis in histological examination, and they are manifestations of different stages of the same pathological process. However, others believe that biliary atresia has never been found in the bile duct dissection of a large number of aborted babies, premature babies or dead fetuses, and that the clinical symptoms of this disease (jaundice, grayish white stools) often appear one week to several weeks after birth. The stools of some children remain normal in color after birth, and gradually turn white when they are one month old. Therefore, biliary atresia is believed to be formed after birth rather than a congenital disease.

1. Jaundice Jaundice is the first symptom and usually begins to appear gradually 1 to 2 weeks after birth. In a few cases, jaundice may not begin until 3 to 4 weeks later, but there are also cases where jaundice appears within the first week. After jaundice appears, it usually does not subside, but becomes increasingly worse. The skin turns golden or even brown, and the mucous membranes and sclera also turn noticeably yellow. In the late stage, even tears and saliva turn yellow.

2. Changes in stool color Most children show no abnormalities in the first few days after birth, and their stool color is normal. The stool turns light yellow at the same time as jaundice appears, gradually becomes yellow-white, or becomes clay-like grayish white, but during the course of the disease, it may sometimes turn into yellow-white again. It is reported that 15% of children with biliary atresia have white stools one month after birth. In the late stage, due to the increase in the concentration of bile pigment in the blood and other organs, a small amount of bile pigment can pass through the intestinal glands and be discharged into the intestinal cavity, making some stools light yellow.

3. Changes in urine color: As jaundice worsens, the color of urine becomes darker, like red tea, dyeing the diaper yellow.

4. Skin itching The skin may be scratched due to itching.

5. Enlarged liver. The abdomen is abnormally swollen and the liver is significantly enlarged, which can be 1 to 2 times larger than normal, especially the right lobe of the liver. The lower edge can exceed the umbilical line to the right iliac fossa. The longer the course of the disease (4 to 5 months or longer), the larger the liver is, the margins are very clear, and the liver is hard when palpated. In almost all cases the spleen is enlarged, with margins at or several centimeters below the costal margin. The abdominal wall veins were exposed. In very advanced cases, there may be a certain amount of ascites in the abdominal cavity, resulting in shifting dullness upon percussion.

6. General condition: The nutritional development of the sick child generally does not change much within 3 to 4 months. The child can drink milk well and has no digestive symptoms such as nausea and vomiting. The height and weight are not much different from those of normal babies. Occasionally, the child is mentally tired, and his movements and reactions are slightly slower than those of healthy babies. If the disease lasts for 5 to 6 months, the appearance may still be good, but the physical development has begun to slow down and the spirit is depressed. As a result of the decrease in prothrombin in the serum, some cases have shown bleeding tendency, skin ecchymosis, nosebleeds, etc. Various fat-soluble vitamin deficiencies can be manifested; when vitamin A is deficient, eye diseases and epithelial keratin changes in other parts of the body occur; vitamin D deficiency may be accompanied by rickets or other sequelae. Most children with biliary atresia die at around 1 year old due to cirrhosis, portal hypertension, and hepatic coma.

What kind of disease is infantile biliary atresia? This is what parents need to know. If this happens, it is best to treat it early and not delay it, otherwise it will become more and more serious, leading to many serious problems, and the baby's body will suffer great damage, eventually making it untreatable.