Metabolic liver disease in childhood

Critical to our homeostasis, hepatocyte metabolism is exceedingly complex and not surprisingly affected by an almost endless growing list of inherited metabolic disorders.The aim of this short manuscript is to give a general overview of the main histological interpretative aspects of paediatric metabolic disorders in histological diagnostic practice. After a brief introduction of normal histological changes in paediatric liver, we discuss the histological approach to neonatal cholestasis. A second paragraph provides a more general description of the histological patterns observed in infants and older children with metabolic disorders outside the context of neonatal cholestasis. The emphasis is on the histological interpretation at light microscopy on paraffin sections.