Fat-soluble vitamins and their importance in patients with cholestatic liver diseases

Abstract

A substantial effort has been made over the past decade to characterize the metabolism of the fat-soluble vitamins in chronic cholestasis to both improve the clinical care of affected patients and to understand the pathophysiology of the vitamin deficiency states. Cholestatic liver disease is a unique cause of fat malabsorption in which standard indices to evaluate vitamin status may be inaccurate. Thus, specific approaches to define vitamin status are being developed. Using the treatment modalities outlined in this review, fat-soluble vitamin deficiency should be a manageable problem and not lead to significant morbidity in patients with chronic cholestasis. The most subtle consequences of deficiency of each vitamin remains to be discovered.