[Liver cholestasis in neonates and young children]

Liver cholestasis was found in 50 autopsies (23 per cent) among 221 neonates and infants who died in intensive care units. It developed from the 4th postnatal day, was mostly mild and present in biliary capillaries as well as in small interlobular biliary ducts, later there was found phagocytosis of biliary pigment by Kupffer cells. In protracted jaundice there was an irregular increase of small cholangioles derivable from a ductal transformation of periportal hepatocytes. Bile ducts proliferation was connected with a slight widening of portal tracts in infants surviving until the 6th and 8th week. The cause of cholestatic liver lesion remained obscure.