Kasai portoenterostomy

Kasai portoenterostomy is the surgery that comprises exposing the porta hepatis by radical excision of all bile duct tissue up to the liver capsule and attaching a Roux-en-Y loop of jejunum to the uncovered liver capsule above the bifurcation of the portal vein creating a portoenterostomy ¹.

Indications

• extra and intrahepatic biliary atresia ^2,3,5

Complications

• ascending cholangitis ⁵
• jaundice

Outcomes

• the accomplishment of the successful Kasai portoenterostomy in patients with biliary atresia is free radiotracer spillage into small bowel loops
• other criteria are serum bilirubin levels < 57 micromol/l, 42 days after the Kasai procedure
• patients with serum bilirubin higher than this threshold frequently scanned for liver transplantation ⁴

^​See also

• biliary atresia
• liver transplantation