Phase IIIb Study of Corticosteroids as Post-Operative Adjuvant Therapy in Biliary Atresia

Biliary atresia is a potentially fatal condition of infants presenting as persisting jaundice in the first few weeks of life. The disease is characterised by obstruction and damage to the intra and extrahepatic parts of the biliary tree. Within the liver there is also a pronounced inflammatory response. The initial treatment is an attempt, by surgery, to restore bile flow by excising the obliterated extrahepatic bile ducts and joining part of the intestine to the bile "root" of the liver (the porta hepatis). This is known as the Kasai procedure. This is successful in ~50% of cases in reducing the level of jaundice to near-normal values. The use of steroids post-operatively has been suggested as improving outcome by diminishing the inflammatory response.