Which Children Need a Liver Transplant?
Liver Diseases in Children that Likely Require Transplantation
Cholestatic liver disease
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Hepatitis
Miscellaneous diseases
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Symptoms Indicating Severity of Disease
The severity of a child’s liver disease usually requires a transplant when the child shows one or more of the following symptoms:- Progressive jaundice - yellow staining of the skin, whites of the eyes, deep tissues, and excretions
- Intractable ascites - accumulation of fluid leaking from the liver and small intestine into the abdomen
- Growth failure
- Encephalopathy - disorders of the brain due to a build-up of toxic material that is usually removed from the blood by the liver
- Recurrent variceal hemorrhage - blood loss from swollen, malformed blood vessels (varices) in the abdomen
- Intractrable pruritus - severe itching
- Uncorrectable coagulopathy - blood disorders that cause abnormal clotting
- Unacceptable qualify of life associated with symptoms