I thought it would be interesting to search the web looking for stats on long term survival in biliary atresia without liver transplant. Using Google and Yahoo to search, I collected the following stats from hospital websites, foundation websites and some are from published medical journal articles. Links to all source web pages are provided.
- Over half of infants undergoing portoenterostomy will clear the jaundice and have a greater than 80% chance of a good quality of life, reaching adolescence without transplantation. SOURCE
- Five and 10 year survival rates with native liver were 35% and 31%, respectively. SOURCE
- As many as 80 percent of children who have the Kasai portoenterostomy will eventually require a liver transplant. SOURCE
- Over 65 percent of children who have the Kasai portoenterostomy will eventually require a liver transplant. SOURCE
- Eighty-five percent of all children who have biliary atresia will need to have a liver transplant before they are 20 years old. The remaining 15 percent have some degree of liver disease. Their disease can be managed without having a transplant. SOURCE
- With the current approach to care, approximately 50% of all patients will require a liver transplantation by the age of 2 years and approximately 80% will require liver transplantation by 20 years. SOURCE
- Long-term results (i.e. 10 years or greater) are less readily available as Kasai’s operation was not readily performed or even available to vast numbers of infants born in the 1970s and early 1980s. Nevertheless our own figures would suggest that about 45% will reach their teenage years with their own livers, and up to 15% will have a truly long-term, symptom-free, hospital-free, normal liver biochemistry existence. SOURCE
- Surgical treatment, the Kasai portoenterostomy, may restore bile flow and clear jaundice, and, if successful, achieve a 10-year survival of 90% with a native liver. SOURCE
- Overall, a recent review demonstrated that 66% of infants undergoing the Kasai procedure ultimately required OLT, including more than 50% of patients who initially achieved bile drainage. SOURCE
- Nearly half of all infants who have had a Kasai procedure need a liver transplant before age 5. Almost all children who have biliary atresia will need to have a liver transplant before they are 20 years old. SOURCE
- Approximately half of all children born with biliary atresia will need a liver transplant by the age of 2 years. By 20 years of age, upwards of seventy percent will need a liver transplant. SOURCE
- 80% of children who initially underwent surgery with Kasai’s procedures should eventually undergo liver transplantation. SOURCE
- In conclusion, in the long term, less than 18% of infants with biliary atresia who are treated with corrective surgery may avoid liver transplantation, but even these patients require assiduous lifelong care. SOURCE
- We found that surgical correction of biliary atresia offers long-term survival for about one quarter of patients SOURCE
- Recent series would suggest that over 50% of infants in large centers will be able to clear their jaundice and therefore have a reasonable expectation of long-term survival with a good quality-of-life. SOURCE
- Approximately 25 to 35% of patients who undergo a Kasai portoenterostomy will survive more than 10 years without liver transplantation. SOURCE
- About one third of patients operated on by eight weeks of age have a successful outcome and may never require transplantation. SOURCE
- Survival with one’s native liver at 5 years has been reported to be as high as 32% in recent studies and 27% at 10 years. SOURCE
