Postoperative pharmacotherapy for patients with biliary atresia in Japan

Members of the Japanese Biliary Atresia Society were surveyed using questionnaires that assess their current practice regarding postoperative pharmacotherapy for outpatients with biliary atresia (BA).

In September 2018, questionnaires were sent to 100 member institutions of the Japanese Biliary Atresia Society. Questionnaires included the number of BA outpatients per institution and pharmacotherapy for outpatients with native liver. Pharmacotherapies were categorized into antibiotics, cholagogues, hepatoprotective agents, branched-chain amino acid supplement, Japanese Kampo medicine, probiotics, laxative, glycerin enema, and "others." In each category, the questionnaires asked about the medicine's details and the time of withdrawal of administration.

Responses were collected from 58 of the 100 institutions. Fifty-four institutions (94.7%) had prescribed one or more medicines as postoperative pharmacotherapy, and three institutions (5.3%) did not prescribe any medicines. Fifty-three institutions (93.0%) had prescribed ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), and 32 (60.4%) of these continued prescribing UDCA as long as the condition of patients remained unchanged. Twenty-nine (50.9%) had prescribed Japanese Kampo medicines ("Inchinkoto" in all cases). Twenty-four (42.1%) had prescribed antibiotics, mainly trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, in 21 (87.5%). Twenty-three (40.4%) had prescribed probiotics.

There were many variations of pharmacotherapy in BA outpatients with native liver in Japan, including antibiotic, probiotic, and Inchinkoto prescriptions. Of the various drugs, the most commonly administered was UDCA.