Biliary Atresia
Definition
Biliary atresia is the congenital failure of a fetus to develop an adequate pathway for bile to drain from the liver to the intestine.
Description
Biliary atresia is the congenital absence or closure of the ducts that drain bile from the liver. Bile is a liquid mixture of cholesterol, bile salts, and waste products, including bilirubin, which the liver excretes through thousands of tiny biliary ducts to the intestine, where the bile aids in the digestive process of dietary fats. These ducts merge into larger and larger channels, like streams flowing into rivers, until they all pour into a single duct that empties into the duodenum (first part of the small intestine). Between the liver and the duodenum this duct has a side channel connected to the gall bladder. The gall bladder...
[The entire page is 1971 words long]
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