[Total parenteral nutrition-related cholestatic hepatopathy, is it an infectious disease?]

The aim of this retrospective study was to determine whether total parenteral nutrition-related liver disease was improved by intravenous antibiotics given for systemic sepsis. Liver function tests were performed 1 month before, during and 1 month after one episode of sepsis treated for 4 weeks (mean, range: 2-12), with systemic antibiotics, in 12 patients receiving parenteral nutrition for 13 months (mean, range: 1-71) for short bowel syndrome in 10 of them. Cholestatic liver disease appeared in all during nutrition (mean serum alkaline phosphatase activity > 4 N). Liver test abnormalities observed at the beginning of antibiotics treatment were not significantly different from those observed 1 month before sepsis. Antibiotic administration was followed by a significant decrease (P < or = 0.03) in serum activities of alkaline phosphatases, ALT and AST and bilirubinemia of 38, 41, 23 and 47%, respectively. These results support the concept that parenteral nutrition-associated cholestatic liver disease may be related to intestinal bacterial overgrowth and suggest that it may be improved by intravenous antibiotherapy.