[Comparative study of the therapeutic effect of diets with qualitatively and quantitatively different fat content on children with cirrhosis of the liver].

A total of 107 children with liver cirrhosis aged from 7 to 12 were kept under observation. Four types of diets with different variants of the fatty component were used in the course of their treatment. The diet No 5 ration contained a physiological set of basic nutrients (with vegetable oil comprising 12% of the total amount of fat in the ration). The diet 52 carried a higher amount of the vegetable oil with its proportion reaching 22% of the total quantity of fat at the expense of a lesser share of butter. The total amount of fat was consistent with the age-specific standard rate. The diets 53 and 54 has the amount of fat raised by 15% with respect to the physiological level through additional introduction of vegetable oil and butter "Zdorovie", respectively. The fat-enriched diets were well tolerated with no manifestations of steatorrhea in evidence. Against the background of all the diets applied the great majority of the patients demonstrated an improvement of both the clinical data (general conditions, reduction in the size of the liver) and a number of characteristics reflecting the functional capacity of the liver (normalization of the blood serum bilirubin, of proteinogram findings). Following the use of diets with an elevated fat content there could be observed a well-marked tendency toward normalization of metabolic rates. In particular the level of the blood serum cholesterol esthers was rising; the plasma and lipids of the erythrocytes stroma showed an increased proportion of arachidonic acid with simultaneous fall of the icosatrienic acid share. This may ascribed to a higher content of polyunsaturated fatty acids in the ration. The most convenient way of introducing polyunsaturated fatty acids in the ration is the dietetic butter "Zdorovie". This justifies recommending it in dietotherapy of children suffering from liver cirrhosis.