Université Catholique de Louvain (St Luc)

Centre Information

The paediatric gastroenterology and hepatology division from Cliniques Saint Luc is a reference centre for liver disease and liver transplantation with more than 1100 paediatric liver transplantations since the eighties.

We work as a medico-surgical unit with close collaboration with surgeons, paediatric aenesthesists, paediatric radiologists or intensivists and many more. We have access to diagnosis of rare liver disease, medical and surgical treatment of liver based diseases.

In continental Europe, the first successful liver transplantation was performed by our team at the Université catholique de Louvain in 1971 in a 17-month-old child with biliary atresia. After the transfer of our Medical School and University Hospital from the city of Louvain to the outskirts of Brussels (at Saint-Luc university Clinics), we resumed our program of liver transplantation in 1984.  The overall results of paediatric liver transplantation at Saint-Luc university Clinics were regularly analysed and published in several scientific articles which appeared in major journals of the scientific literature. 

We are also in charge of a paediatric clinical trial center (PCIC) which is an integrated platform thanks to the collaboration of different units, allowing to simplify several steps of clinical trials.The PCIC can organise and manage paediatric clinical protocols from phase II to IV, including epidemiological studies, withqualified staff and in strict accordance with GCP .

There is a specific transition program between the paediatricians and the adult hepatologists, with a progressive transition between the age of 16 and 20 years-old depending on each patient. 

The gastro-hepatology unit comprises 5 hepatologists, which are all taking care of patients with rare diseases of the liver, mainly in outpatients’ clinic but also in a hepatology ward, more specifically for liver biopsies, acute decompensations of liver diseases, specific liver work-up and liver transplantation. We have all facilities to take care of these patients.