| The
idea of the “European Biliary Atresia Registry” (EBAR) arose
from an international and interdisciplinary Symposium which took place
in Hanover in 1999. Reports from national registries have shown that treatment
of biliary atresia greatly improves when this rare disease is diagnosed
early and treated in specialized centers. However, the incidence in each
country is too small to draw any major conclusions from. Because of this,
representatives of all three disciplines involved in the treatment of
biliary atresia (pediatric gastroenterology, pediatric surgery and transplant
surgery) have decided to start a European Registry and the response is
already very encouraging. The results of EBAR depend directly on the contributions
of those colleagues who treat patients with biliary atresia. We hope that
the number of participating centers will increase continously and that
all participants will bear up under the workload so that fruitfull long
term results can be achieved. |