Objective To evaluate factors influencing long-term survival of biliary atresia patients receiving Kasai procedure and the prevention and treatment of surgical complications.Methods Among 97 biliary atresia patients undergoing Kasai or Suruga operation from Mar 1989 to Mar 1999, 35 cases have survived over five years.These 35 cases were classified intraoperatively into type Ⅱ (4 cases) and type Ⅲ (31 cases).Procedures included hepaticojejunostomy (12 cases), Suruga operation (hepaticojejunostomy with a jejunal fistula in 21 cases), hepaticocystomy (2 cases).Six patients underwent second hepaticojejunostomy because of porta hepatis obstruction.Results (1) Eighteen patients suffered from early cholangiolitis, and four cases developed late cholangiolitis, 5-8 years after closing the ascending stoma.(2) Five cases presented upper digestive tract hemorrhage caused by portal hypertension.(3) All patients were followed up from 5 to 15 years with 2 deaths.Conclusion Conventional surgical procedures still take important part in treating biliary atresia before liver transplantation is popularized.Factors influencing long term survival of patients receiving Kasai′s operation include age at operation, pathological classification of extrahepatic bile duct, with or without cholangitis after operation, and portal hypertension.

BACKGROUND: Postoperative cholangitis is a common but severe complication after Kasai portoenterostomy for biliary atresia (BA). This study aimed to identify its prognostic factors. METHODS: Two sets of liver paraffin-embedded tissue samples were collected from BA patients who received Kasai portoenterostomy (n = 25 and n = 31, respectively). Patients were divided into non-cholangitis and cholangitis groups. The infiltration of CD4+, CD8+, CD45RO+, CD68+ cells and expression of Beclin1 were quantitatively evaluated in immunohistochemical analysis. RESULTS: Cholangitis group had a significantly lower CD8+ T cell infiltration but a higher CD45RO+ cell infiltration, and a lower Beclin1 level than non-cholangitis group (all P < 0.01). Multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that infiltration of CD8+ cells (odds ratio [OR], 0.112; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.022–0.577) and CD45RO+ cells (OR, 3.88; 95% CI, 1.37–11.03), and Beclin1 level (OR, 0.088; 95% CI, 0.018–0.452) were independent influence factors for early postoperative cholangitis. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis showed that area under ROC curve (AUROC) values for CD8+ cells, CD45RO+ cells and Beclin1 were 0.857, 0.738 and 0.900, respectively. CONCLUSION: Our findings demonstrated the CD8+ cells, CD45RO+ cells and Beclin1 level possessed the prognostic value for early postoperative cholangitis following Kasai operation, which may be helpful to develop new prevention and treatment strategies for postoperative cholangitis.
Biliary Atresia* ; Cholangitis* ; Humans ; Liver ; Logistic Models ; ROC Curve ; T-Lymphocytes*