A child may be born with a liver condition or acquire one through disease or infection.
Liver care at the Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children is provided by a hepatologist (a doctor who is board certified in pediatric gastroenterology with a certificate of added qualification in pediatric hepatology/transplant hepatology). Physicians from the Diagnostic Referral Service link to Diagnostic Referral Service with special expertise in the care of post liver transplant patients also participate in the program. We hold specialized clinics for children with various forms of liver disease, where they can receive convenient, coordinated care from other specialists, such as weight management experts and registered dietitians with expertise in liver disease.
As part of the liver transplant team – which is headed by a highly skilled pediatric transplant surgeon – we offer comprehensive pre- and post-operative care that is provided by the pediatric liver care clinicians and liver transplant coordinators, a social worker, nutritionist, and financial coordinator.
We also work closely with other specialty areas (including radiology, pathology, hematology/oncology, nephrology and anesthesiology), to manage patients with complex liver disease.
Some of the conditions we evaluate, manage and treat include:
- biliary atresia (a blockage in the tube that carries bile from the liver and the gallbladder to the intestine)
- jaundice (a yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes caused by the liver’s inability to excrete or to get rid of bilirubin, a byproduct of the normal breakdown of red blood cells)
- acute or chronic viral hepatitis (including hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C.)
- enlarged liver or spleen
- alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency (a genetic disorder that causes liver and lung disease)
- liver disease occurring in patients with cystic fibrosis
- metabolic liver disease (disease caused by a problem with the body’s enzymes)
- Alagille syndrome (a genetic disorder that affects the liver, heart, and other body systems)
- Wilson disease (a genetic disorder in which excessive amounts of copper accumulate in the body, affecting many organs such as the liver, the kidneys and the brain)
- acute liver failure in which the liver fails to work and patients develop symptoms such as jaundice, confusion, coma, kidney failure, bleeding that show up over a short span of time and may be due to medication overdose, poisoning, infection or disease
- autoimmune hepatitis (when a child’s immune system mistakenly attacks the liver)
- primary sclerosing cholangitis (inflammation of the bile ducts)
- NAFLD and NASH (which is non-alcholic fatty liver disease and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, which is fatty liver with or without inflammation and damage not due to alcoholism respectively which often occurs in children who are overweight or obese )
- liver disorders related to gastrointestinal disease
- enzyme deficiency
- liver tumors and cancers in conjunction with the cancer doctors