Exclusion of the Colon in the Treatment of Hepatic Encephalopathy

Abstract

DESPITE the advances of the past decade the precise causes and metabolic patterns of the varied neurologic and psychiatric disorders seen in association with liver disease have not yet been determined. Nevertheless, a number of separable clinical syndromes have been delineated. One of these is hepatolenticular degeneration, or Wilson's disease. Another is the widespread disorder of nervous-system function, culminating in "hepatic coma," regularly seen with advanced degrees of hepatocellular disease. A third is the cerebral and extrapyramidal disorder that is related more to the shunting of portal blood around the liver than to deterioration of liver parenchyma and may occur . . .