Gallstones or cholelithiasis are a major public health problem in Europe and other developed countries and affect up to 20% of the population. Gallstone disease is the most common gastrointestinal disorder for which patients are admitted to hospitals in European countries. The interdisciplinary care for patients with gallstone disease has advanced considerably during recent decades…
The Clinical Practice Guidelines propose recommendations for the diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) patients and are the product of a joint effort by the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) and European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO). They update a position statement based on the 2009 EASL Special Conference. The data have been retrieved by an extensive PubMed search up to April 2015. The final statements are graded according to the level of evidence and strength of recommendation, which are adjustable to local regulations and/or team capacities.
Survival rates after liver transplantation have improved significantly in the past 25 years. What is this great success attributed to? The first human orthotopic liver transplantation (LT) in Europe was performed by Sir Roy Calne in Cambridge in 1968, only one year after the first successful human liver transplantation reported by Thomas Starzl in the United States. Since…
Vascular disorders of the liver, although affecting less than 5/10,000 patients, collectively account for a number of rare conditions that represent an important health problem worldwide in the field of liver diseases. A common characteristic of most of these disorders is that they can cause non-cirrhotic portal hypertension with an ensuing high morbidity and mortality…
Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) was the first liver disease for which an effective therapeutic intervention, corticosteroid treatment, was convincingly demonstrated in controlled clinical trials. However, 50 years later AIH still remains a major diagnostic and therapeutic challenge.
Liver fibrosis is part of the structural and functional alterations in most chronic liver diseases. It is one of the main prognostic factors as the amount of fibrosis is correlated with the risk of developing cirrhosis and liver-related complications in viral and non-viral chronic liver diseases [1,2]. Liver biopsy has traditionally been considered the reference…
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is one of the main causes of chronic liver disease worldwide. The long-term impact of HCV infection is highly variable, ranging from minimal histological changes to extensive fibrosis and cirrhosis with or without hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The number of chronically infected persons worldwide is estimated to be about 160 million,…
Hepatic Encephalopathy (HE) is a frequent complication and one of the most debilitating manifestations of liver disease, severely affecting the lives of patients and their caregivers. Furthermore, cognitive impairment associated with cirrhosis results in utilization of more health care resources in adults than other manifestations of liver disease. Progress in the area has been hindered…
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is one of the main causes of chronic liver disease worldwide. The long-term impact of HCV infection is highly variable, from minimal changes to extensive fibrosis and cirrhosis with or without hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The number of chronically infected persons worldwide is estimated to be about 160 million, but most…
More than 360 million persons worldwide (6% of the world population) are chronically infected by the hepatitis B virus (HBV). Although the incidence of HBV infection has dramatically declined since the implementation of universal immunization programs in several countries and blood-donor screening, a significant number of children are still infected each year, often developing chronic infection…