Abstract
During the past nine years, 48 patients were admitted to our department of pediatric surgery under the suspicion of obstructive jaundice. 28 cases were congenital biliary atresia (C. B. A.) and the other 17 cases were neonatal hepatitis (N. H.). Two cases of C. B. A. were investigated too long time for radical operation for follow up. Nine of the 17 cases, N. H. were diagnosed by means of exploratory laparotomy. Two of these nine cases showed no intrahepatic bile duct by operative cholangiography, but were diagnosed N. H. because of absence of fibrosis of the liver and extrahepatic bile ducts. Satisfactory bile excretion was obtained in all cases. Since there was no significant difference between C. B. A. and N. H. by measuring serum bilirubin, Al-p, GOT, GPT and alfa-fetoprotein, immediate exploratory laparotomy should be performed in case of difficult to diagnose. Considering the close similarity of clinical feature and laboratory data between C. B. A. and N. H. in some cases, Landing's theory of obstructive cholangiopathy is agreeable.
