Transient neonatal cholestasis: origin and outcome.

We studied, retrospectively, 92 children who were first seen with neonatal cholestasis and who were followed up until liver test results normalized. Among the 92 children, 81 displayed factors responsible for chronic and/or acute perinatal distress. Onset of jaundice was recorded at a mean age of 7 days, and mean duration was 3.5 months. Stools, initially discolored in 39 children, were normally colored at a mean age of 1.7 months. Hepatomegaly present in 90 children resolved at a mean age of 13 months. Liver test results were normal at the age of 1 year in 83 children and normalized at a mean age of 10 months. Liver histologic examination, performed in 70 children, showed moderate portal and lobular fibrosis, multinucleated giant hepatocytes, and hematopoietic foci; findings in follow-up liver biopsy specimens from 15 children were normal or improved. Spontaneously resolving forms of neonatal cholestasis may result from the association of several factors, including immaturity of bile secretion and perinatal disease leading to hepatic hypoxia or ischemia.