Liver diseases and osteoporosis in children

Bone disease in infants and children with hepatobiliary disease

“…In the paper entitled 'Rickets: a common complication of neonatal hepatitis' by Yu et al (1971), 4 out of 30 infants with the disease had rickets. There has been, however, meagre information available on the incidence of osteoporosis in hepatobiliary disease in childhood except for the report by Teng et al (1961). The pathogenesis of bone disease in hepatobiliary disease has been poorly understood.…”

“…Atkinson et al (1956) reported 22 adult patients with obstructive jaundice, in 6 of whom a diagnosis of osteomalacia was made. However, there have been conspicuously few reports on this subject in infants and children (Teng et al, 1961;Yu, Walker-Smith, and Burnard, 1971). This paper describes the incidence of bone disease in infants and children with hepatobiliary disease, the age of onset, and comparative biochemical studies between the groups with and without bone disease.…”

Liver Tumors in Infancy

“…Osteoporosis is said to occur in up to 20% of the cases and when severe can lead to bone fractures and vertebral compression. [35] The tumor may rupture spontaneously, producing an acute abdomen and hemoperitoneum. [10] Approximately 90% of patients demonstrate elevated serum AFP levels and there is a correlation between AFP levels and extent of disease.…”

Not everything is child abuse

“…Clavicular fractures also are very common birth injuries, and in terms of birth injuries, it has been suggested that if a fresh fracture is seen after 11 days of age [15] abuse should be suspected. The reason for this is that by 11 days of age some callus formation should be seen.…”