BILACO Trial: Biliary Atresia - a Severe Complex Congenital Liver Disease

Biliary atresia is the most severe form of cholestatic liver disease. The children have high morbidity and mortality and get devastating pruritus and fatigue, failure to thrive, progressive hepatic failure and impaired neurodevelopment. The etiology is mostly unknown. More than half need a new liver from a living or deceased donor during childhood. However, correct timing of the transplantation is extremely difficult because of lack of consensus based on clinical assessment tools. All though the incidence is low, the cost of this disease is tremendous from both a clinical and human perspective. So far, protocolized neurodevelopment tests, genetic profiling, precise malnutrition evaluation based on clinical appearance, biochemical markers and brain MRI-scans, body composition, immunological function, level of physical activity and optimal time of transplantation in cholestatic children ar