The spectrum of hepatic dysfunction in inflammatory bowel disease

The spectrum and incidence of liver disease is described among a large series of patients with inflammatory bowel disease. The incidence of significant liver disease identified by the presence of serial biochemical abnormalities of liver function was 8.2 per cent. Transient peri-operative changes in liver function tests are common and usually relate to underlying intra-abdominal sepsis. Percholangitis, sometimes termed portal triaditis, is one of the commoner lesions, and is usually associated with extensive colitis and improves with resection of the underlying bowel disease. Cirrhosis of the liver is an important but uncommon complication and is usually associated with extensive long-standing disease. Stenosing cholangitis and biliary tract carcinoma are both important though rare associations. They are both associated with extensive disease of long-standing, but resection of the underlying inflammatory bowel disease does not necessarily protect the individual from these complications. Although stenosing cholangitis is a diffuse lesion of the biliary tree it is important to exclude strictures of the extra-hepatic biliary tree which may be amenable to surgical correction. Hepatic dysfunction is rarely the sole indication for advising surgery for the underlying bowel disease but the identification of the nature of the hepati- dysfunction provides a rational basis for such a decision and opportunities for the surgical correction of the hepatic lesion itself.