Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis

Samar H. Ibrahim, M.B., Ch.B., Pediatric-Hepatologist, Mayo Clinic: Hello my name is Samar Ibrahim. I’m one of the pediatric hepatologists at Mayo Clinic. I’m here today to speak about the care we provide for pediatric patient with primary sclerosing cholangitis at the pediatric liver transplant center.

Primary sclerosing cholangitis is a chronic liver disease. It affects the bile ducts in the liver. It’s a progressive disease which means it will get worse with time. The rate of progression of the disease from one patient to another is variable but the etiology or the cause behind the disease is not known and there is no known therapeutic agent that can help disease progression or improve prognosis. So the definitive treatment familial liver transplantation for patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis and end-stage liver disease.

At Mayo Clinic, we have a lot of experience caring for patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis in the pediatric age group. Our survival rate for a patient who had liver transplantation for end-stage liver disease secondary to primary sclerosing cholangitis on the short term or long term has been 100 percent. We evaluate patient with primary sclerosing cholangitis and end-stage liver disease for the need of liver transplantation. We have a multidisciplinary team and we assure that we manage the patient’s complications and treat the symptoms during this critical period. Treatment option will be merely medical treatment and intervention by our endoscopist. We also do have a well-developed living related liver donor program and we offer to individuals, who are interested in being a living donor to their loved one with primary sclerosing cholangitis, the opportunity to be screened to determine if they are adequate candidate to be a liver donor and we fully inform them about the process of living donation.