Texas Children's Hospital Announces New Liver Disease Center

Texas Children's Hospital has opened a new Liver Disease Center, providing medical and surgical expertise for pediatric patients with acute and chronic liver disease.

The center, within Texas Children's gastroenterology and nutrition service, evaluates and treats liver diseases in children through adulthood, performs liver surgery, including liver transplantation, and features a comprehensive research component.

"Pediatric liver disease is a significant problem in the United States," says Dr. Ralph D. Feigin, physician-in-chief at Texas Children's Hospital and president of Baylor College of Medicine. "With the development of this center, Texas Children's Hospital will become a world leader both in research and in the treatment of liver diseases in children."

Using a multidisciplinary approach, Texas Children's clinical experts provide assessment, treatment and detailed follow-up for children who suffer from a wide variety of disorders that impact normal liver function. These include biliary atresia and other forms of inherited hepatobiliary malformations, metabolic liver diseases, infections of the liver including acute and chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis, Wilson disease, and liver complications from chronic conditions such as short gut syndrome in premature infants or cystic fibrosis. The center also provides comprehensive nutritional support for patients with chronic liver disease.

For those patients who require surgical intervention, Texas Children's Liver Disease Center provides state-of-the-art technology and a dedicated team of professionals. Surgeons perform liver resections, bile-duct resections and liver transplantation, including living donor and in-situ split liver transplants.

Joining Texas Children's as center director is liver specialist Dr. Saul Karpen. Dr. Karpen is formerly a faculty member at Yale University School of Medicine. He is also associate professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, with a joint appointment in molecular and cellular biology. Dr. John Goss, a specialist in hepatobiliary surgery, is surgical director of the Texas Children's Liver Disease Center.

"Texas Children's has assembled an eminent team of liver-disease experts offering a unique blend of services - not only to patients in Houston but to the southwestern United States and beyond," says Dr. William Klish, chief of gastroenterology and nutrition at Texas Children's. "The center will be dedicated to developing new and innovative treatments for all forms of pediatric liver disease."

- BILL ZANDER

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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