Word: atresia
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...liver adjusts to its new metabolic work load. William Lewis, born last Oct. 10 in New York City, was a rare example of a far more serious condition. His complexion remained abnormal. Even more frightening, his stools and urine indicated that he suffered from an inborn defect, biliary atresia-the absence or severe underdevelopment of tiny bile ducts emerging from the liver. William's case proved to be unusual in another respect: he was flown to Japan in the search for lifesaving corrective surgery...
Nature designed the ducts to carry bile on its way from the liver, where it is made, to the duodenum, where it aids in digestion. Among the estimated 200 occurrences each year of biliary atresia in the U.S., there are a few in which ducts outside the liver are large enough for corrective surgery. But not in William's case...
...bile backing up in his liver would soon cause irreparable damage to that vital organ and affect others. The prognosis, at one of Manhattan's most famed university hospitals, was grim. Although operations for biliary atresia are performed in the U.S., the experts concluded that William's condition could not be corrected by surgery and that he probably would live no longer than nine months...
...Juntendo University, Suruga, 52, explained his special interest in biliary atresia: for reasons unknown it is far more common in Asia than in Western countries. Suruga's early techniques for correcting the condition proved to be only palliative, not curative. In 1968 he hit upon a method that he has since used in 40 cases, with 30 children now surviving. It was a variation of this technique that he used for William...