Clinical analysis of liver fibrosis in choledochal cyst

Although most patients with choledochal cyst (CC) have a favorable prognosis with prompt treatment, some of them are complicated with liver fibrosis, resulting in prolonged liver dysfunction even after definitive surgery. The aim of this study was to distinguish the high-risk group of liver fibrosis in patients with CC.

Fifteen patients who underwent liver biopsy during surgery for CC from 1981 to 2012 were enrolled in this study. Liver histology with H&E staining was graded according to Ohkuma's classification, and the correlation with the clinical characteristics was retrospectively assessed.

Their median age at biopsy was 13.4 months (range 1-42 months), and there were 7 in Ia, 2 in Ic, and 6 in IVa of the Todani classification. There were no significant differences in serum liver function test among those cyst types. The histological grades of liver fibrosis were as follows: grade 0 (no fibrosis) in 7 patients, grade 1 (mild) in 2, grade 2 (moderate) in 3, grade 3 (severe) in 2, grade 4 (cirrhosis) in 1. All 3 patients with grade 3 and 4 had CC with IVa and were under 18-month old. A 3-month-old girl with cirrhosis presented with severe jaundice resulting in living-donor liver transplantation despite bile drainage. A 16-month-old girl with grade 3 suffered from prolonged liver dysfunction and intractable ascites after surgery.

The progression of liver fibrosis is likely to be correlated with IVa, and the postoperative course might be unsatisfactory in advanced cases. The prompt surgical intervention is recommended especially for neonatal and infantile cases with type IVa cyst because irreversible liver cirrhosis could occur as early as in the infantile period.