We studied the outcome of 436 patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) or primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) who underwent orthotopic liver transplant (OLT) at three major liver transplant centers. Univariate predictors of outcome included age, Karnofsky score, Child's class, Mayo risk score, United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) status, nutritional status, serum albumin, serum bilirub...

Albumin has been widely used in patients with cirrhosis in an attempt to improve circulatory and renal functions. The benefits of albumin infusions in preventing the deterioration in renal function associated with large-volume paracentesis, spontaneous bacterial peritonitis, and established hepatorenal syndrome in conjunction with a vasoconstrictor are well established. While some of these indi...

64 Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) or Portosystemic encephalopathy (PSE) in end-stage liver disease (ESLD) such as cirrhosis of the liver is a reversible and recurrent disorder of neurological function caused by liver disease or portosystemic shunting of blood or both. In this article only hepatic encephalopathy (HE) in chronic end-stage liver disease (ESLD) will be discussed. Hepatic encephalopath...

INTRODUCTION Several studies have investigated the effects following the implementation of the "Share 35" policy; however none have investigated what effect this policy change has had on waitlist and liver transplantation (LT) outcomes for hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC). METHODS Data were obtained from the UNOS database and a comparison of the 2 years post-Share 35 with data from the 2 years p...

End stage liver disease results in a complex and variably severe failure of hemostasis that predisposes to abnormal bleeding. The diverse spectrum of hemostatic defects includes impaired synthesis of clotting factors, excessive fibrinolysis, disseminated intravascular coagulation, thrombocytopenia, and platelet dysfunction. Hemostasis screening tests are used to assess disease severity and moni...

Case description Mrs Z. was a 63-year-old woman with chronic hepatitis C infection and end-stage liver disease (ESLD). She had had 2 hospital admissions in the past 6 months for complications related to her ESLD, most recently for spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP). Mrs Z. also had a history of refractory ascites requiring paracentesis every 2 weeks and large esophageal varices that had no...

BACKGROUND Chronic liver disease is characterized by inflammation and fibrosis. As a consequence angiogenesis leading to new vasculature may have prognostic value in disease progression. Interfering with angiogenesis may be a potential target to avoid progression of liver disease. Hence we planned to evaluate the CD34 and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), the markers for angiogenesis i...