Influence of recent advances in medical management on clinical outcomes of cirrhosis

Cirrhosis and its disease-related complications are the 12th leading cause of mortality among US adults and are the 5th leading cause of death for individuals aged 45 to 54 years. Hospitalisation costs for disease-related complications are estimated at $18,000 per episode of care, and 10% of admitted patients die. Despite these ominous findings, the survival rate of patients with cirrhosis has improved during the past 2 decades. This observation coincides with the conducting and reporting of high-quality randomized controlled trials and observational stydies. Therefore, the improved prognosis in cirrhosis may be related to the effective translation of research findings to clinical practice for this patient population. Although explicit data to support this claim are not available, this article reviews the reported trends in clinical outcomes for patients with cirrhosis and the existence of evidence-based medical information that is available to care for these chronically ill patients.