To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many children under one year of age have been diagnosed as suffering from biliary atresia in each year from 1987; how many of them were placed on a waiting list for liver transplant in each of those years; and in how many of those cases in each year a liver transplant operation was performed.
The information is not available centrally in the form requested. Published reports suggest that the incidence of extra hepatic biliary atresia is about one in 14,000 infants. From this it is estimated that in England and Wales where about 700,000 infants are born each year, of whom 93 per cent. survive the first year there would be about 50 cases annually. The table shows the number of children in the United Kingdom aged less than one year who joined the liver transplant waiting list in each year from 1987, and the number transplanted. It has not been possible to identify the specific conditions from which these children were suffering.
| Year | Number of children aged less than one year joining the liver waiting list for the first time (or for the first time since previous transplant) | Number of these children transplanted |
| 1987 | 25 | 7 |
| 1988 | 17 | 8 |
| 1989 | 14 | 12 |
| 1990 | 13 | 9 |
| 1991 | 22 | 21 |
| 1992 | 28 | 22 |
| 1993 | 12 | 71 |
| 1 Up to 28 May 1993. Four children under age one who joined the waiting list for livers in 1993 are still awaiting transplant as at 28 May 1993. Nine children appear in the table more than once due to retransplants while aged less than one year. Figures supplied by the United Kingdom Transplant Support Service Authority. | ||