Liver Transplant

Liver Transplant

Signs and Symptoms
Evaluation
Treatment

Signs and Symptoms

The signs and symptoms of liver problems include:

• yellow skin and eyes
• very pale yellow/gray or white stools
• dark tea colored urine
• nausea
• vomiting
• decreased appetite
• growth delay or failure
• abdominal swelling
• easy bruising or bleeding
• frequent nose bleeds
• constant itching
• changes in sleep patterns or mental status
• fatigue or lack of energy.

Although there are hundreds of liver illnesses that may result in end stage or terminal liver disease, biliary atresia, a birth defect in which the bile ducts fail to develop or develop abnormally, is the most common cause for children's liver transplants at our hospital.

Other liver diseases in children are:

• Obstructive biliary tract disease
  1. Progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis (Byler syndrome)
  2. Alagille syndrome
  3. Nonsyndromic bile duct paucity (loss of bile ducts)
  4. Neonatal hepatitis
  5. Sclerosing cholangitis
• Metabolic Diseases
  1. Alpha 1 antitrypsin deficiency
  2. Tyrosinemia
  3. Galactosemia
  4. Urea cycle defects
  5. Organic acidemia
  6. Glycogen storage diseases
  7. Wilson's disease
  8. Neonatal hemochromotosis
  9. Hyperlipoproteinemia
  10. Crigler-Najjar syndrome type 1
• Sudden hepatitis, often caused by poisoning
• Chronic hepatitis/cirrhosis
• Tumors
  1. Hepatoblastoma
  2. Hepatocellular carcinoma
  3. Hemangioendothelioma
  4. Sarcoma
• Miscellaneous
  1. Cystic fibrosis
  2. Caroli disease
  3. Congenital hepatic fibrosis
  4. Cirrhosis for prolonged total parenteral nutrition (TPN)

Reviewed by health care specialists at UCSF Children's Hospital.
Last updated May 8, 2007