Essential fatty acid deficiency after hepatic portoenterostomy for biliary atresia.

Gas chromatography was used to determine the fatty acid composition of total lipids extracted from plasma and erythrocytes of five patients who had received an hepatic portoenterostomy for treatment of extrahepatic biliary atresia. Three patients, including one with successful surgery, demonstrated evidence of essential fatty acid deficiency, including decreased levels of linoleic and arachidonic acids with concomitant increases in palmitoleic and oleic acids. In two of these patients, the ratio of 5,8 11-eicosatrienoic acid to arachidonic acid ("triene/tetraene") exceeded 0.3, diagnostic of essential fatty acid deficiency. Even patients with successful hepatic portoenterostomy are at risk to develop essential fatty acid deficiency.