Retrospective case series analysis of patients treated with liver cirrhosis at our specialist care centre between 2006 – 2011

Introduction:Our 36-bed gastroenterology unit has been running with a focus on hepato-pancreatology system disorders since 2006. In addition to providing secondary care for the 430,000 local residents in our county, we are also a country-wide tertiary referral centre for liver diseases including chronic viral hepatitis and preparation for liver transplantation. At our specialist care centre, we are able to provide the complete spectrum of diagnostic tests for hepato-pancreatology system diseases and offer access to the full range of therapeutic procedures. In this presentation, we carry out a structured analysis of the case series of patients treated with liver cirrhosis at our specialist care centre between 2006 – 2011.

Patients and results: During this period, there were 6991 hospitalizations at our unit. Out of these, we had 1495 cases hospitalised with the diagnosis of liver cirrhosis involving a total of 1184 patients (male:female ratio = 2.5:1). The mean age was 59 years. The etiology of cases included alcohol for 87.3%, chronic HCV infection for 6.3%, rare diseases for 3.1% (autoimmune liver diseases, Wilson's disease, Osler's disease, cardiac cirrhosis, chronic HBV infection), and unclear etiology for 3.3%. From the latter group, some proved to be non-alcoholic steatohepatitis in subsequent analyses. The severity of liver disease according to the Child-Pugh classification was: 129 cases A/567 cases B/799 cases C. The reasons for the hospitalization were vascular and/or parenchymal decompensation in 70% of the cases, gastrointestinal bleeding in 7% of the cases, varying degrees of encephalopathy in 3% of the cases, and 20% others. We performed abdominocentesis due to diuretic-resistant ascites in 433 cases, of which 17% was confirmed as spontaneous bacterial peritonitis. Dialysis was carried out for 19 patients (4 peritoneal, 15 hemodialysis) due to progressive hepatorenal syndrome. The incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma among cirrhotic patients was 4.5%. Out of the 1184 patients, 316 died in complications of liver cirrhosis while hospitalised (27% mortality rate). The total number of patients indicated for liver transplantation was 36/1184.