Clinical Practice Guidelines for Biliary Atresia

The Japanese Biliary Atresia Society (JBAS) prepared for clinical practice guidelines for biliary atresia (BA) according to the Medical Information Network Distribution Service (MINDS) Handbook 2014. Twenty-five clinical questions (CQs) essential for daily clinical practice for BA were grouped into diagnosis, treatment, complications, and prognosis. Systematic literature search performed by the review members and medical evidence was extracted from articles published until July 2014 on PubMed and the Japan medical abstracts society. To reach the guideline consensus, a majority (>70%) adoption was made by the guidelines drafting members according to Delphi procedures. Recommendations for 21 CQs were appropriately provided. However, for 4 CQs (stool color cord, postoperative steroid administration, timing for liver transplantation, and primary liver transplantation), recommendations could not be determined due to a scarcity of evidence. This guideline is the first clinical practice guideline for biliary atresia created by such procedures.