Neonatal hemochromatosis: It's OK to say “NO” to antioxidant-chelator therapy

Abstract

Neonatal hemochromatosis (NH) is a rare medical condition presenting as severe liver disease in the newborn period. The natural history of patients with NH is grim; when not stillborn, most infants present in the first days or weeks of life with clinical features of liver failure. Within the first few weeks of life, most succumb to the complications of end-stage liver disease if not successfully rescued by liver transplantation. Given its rarity and severity, NH has been difficult to study and frustrating to treat. Rarely, spontaneous recovery without disease-specific medical intervention or liver transplantation is observed in patients with NH. In this issue of Liver Transplantation, Rodrigues and co-workers describe the presentation, management and outcomes of the largest series of patients with NH reported to date: 19 infants evaluated over a 12-year time span at the King’s College Hospital, London. Very few centers in the world have reported on more than a few patients with NH. 1-3