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No. 5]Proc. Japan Acad., 46 (1970) 453 107.

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Hepatitis and cirrhosis of the liver are not as uncommon a disease in infancy as had originally been believed. There are cartain feature different from adults in regards to etiology, incidence and pathogenesis which are more or less characteristic of this age group. A number of specific factors have so far been considered as being responsible for hepatitis and cirrhosis in infancy.Since the first publication of posterythroblastic liver damage by HAWKSLEY and LIGHT WOOD^^) in 1934, a form of neonatal hepatitis of unknown etiology and at least two types of viral hepatitis have been recognized in newborn infants.C2) Although many papers appeared on neonatal liver damage, most of the reports have dealt with a particular type. Comprehensive reviews of the pathologic anatomy of infantile hepatitis and cirrhosis are very few in number.C314)This study is undertaken for the purpose of morphogenetic classification of a series of cases of liver damage in Chinese infants. The author's immediate concern is with a number of cases of hepatitis and cirrhosis confirmed by postmortem examination. An ill-defined group of liver damage due to erythroblastosis fetalis, icterus gravis neonatorum, reticuloendotheliosis, and leukemia, is excluded from this study. MATERIALS AND METHODS495 autopsies performed at the Institute of Pathology, National Taiwan University, from June, 1946 to August, 1960, on infants who died before the age of one year were studied, from which 27 cases having a final diagnosis of any form "hepatitis", which could be documented by histologic preparations, were selected for discussion.In all the cases the tissue had been fixed in formalin. Liver sections were stained routinely with hematoxylin-eosin. The majority of these sections were also stained with MALLORY'S aniline blue, Prussian blue method for hemosiderin and Foot's modification of Bielschowsky-Maresch method for reticulum fibers. A few sections were studied for fat content by the Sudan I11 technic. * Directed by Prof. S . YEN M.D. 31 HEPATITIS AND CIRRHOSLS IN INFANCY RESULTSOn careful scrutiny, it became evident that the liver of each selected case had a distinct and fairly specific, histologic appearance and the structural changes which delineated them, showed a highly specific pattern.According the basic structural alterations, the cases were classified into five major categories : (1) liver damage associated with necrosis, (2) liver damage marked by interstitial hepatitis, (3) liver damage secondary to intrahepatic cholestasis, (4) liver damage secondary to extrahepatic cholestasis, ( 5 ) liver damage due to fatty metamorphosis. T h e results of 27 cases surveyed were summarized in Table I.

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