[Medical aspects of children with portal hypertension at Bicêtre hospital. A study of 282 cases (1954-1981) (author's transl)].

282 children with portal hypertension (PHT) were studied. PHT was due to extra-hepatic portal venous obstruction in 40% of children, to intra-hepatic disease in 56% and to post-sinusoídal lesions in 4%. Presenting symptoms, and risk of gastro-intestinal bleeding were analyzed in each etiologic group, as well as the follow-up in children in whom a portal-systemic shunt was not carried out. In portal venous obstruction, gastro-intestinal bleeding occurred frequently and early in life; liver failure and portal systemic encephalopathy did not occur; none of these children died except those with severe congenital heart disease. In children with cirrhosis, gastro-intestinal bleeding occurred twice less frequently and its date depended upon the etiology of cirrhosis; in this group, death was due twice more often to the underlying liver disease than to gastro-intestinal bleeding. In supra-hepatic PHT, the risks of PHT proper are limited except for ascites.