Clinico-pathological profile of children with liver disease in Uttaranchal

The present study was conducted to find out the etiology and clinical profile of children with liver disease as seen at a tertiary care teaching hospital in Uttaranchal. The study included 117 patients with ages ranging between 1.5 months to 18 years. Loss of appetite was found to be the predominant presenting feature (95.7%) followed by nausea and vomiting (90.6%). Twenty four (20.5%) cases had cirrhosis of liver with portal hypertension. Acute hepatitis was seen in 28 (23.9%) cases. Fifteen (12.8%) cases had hepatic failure out of whom 9 died. Chronic hepatitis was present in 11(9.4%) cases. On the whole hepatotropic viruses were responsible for 43 (36.8%) cases of liver disease. A total of 13 (11.1%) deaths occurred. Hepatic failure with encephalopathy was the leading cause of death.