Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is rapidly becoming one of most common liver diseases in the paediatric population in industrialized countries due to the growing prevalence of obesity and overweight. Paediatric NAFLD is typically of primary origin and it is strongly associated with several features of the metabolic syndrome. The mainstay of NAFLD therapy is represented by lifestyle interventions on obesogenic environment and sedentary lifestyle, which aim to improve obesity, hepatic changes and quality of life as well. Unfortunately, this goal is very difficult to be achieved and pharmacological approaches have become necessary. Although in fairly recent years, many pharmacological agents, on the basis of pathogenetic mechanism of the disease, have been attempted, to date guidelines for the management of fatty liver are still lacking. Establishing effective therapeutic strategies to treat the disease represents the challenge for paediatric hepatologists in the near future. In this article, we briefly review the current knowledge and ideas concerning paediatric non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.