Skip to main content

Liver cirrhosis and its complications

Liver cirrhosis is a consequence of chronic liver diseases with a high morbidity and mortality. It is the 11th most common cause of death worldwide. Liver cirrhosis related complications, such as ascites, variceal bleeding, hepatic encephalopathy, jaundice, and hepatocellular carcinoma herald the progression of liver diseases. 

New Content ItemIn recent years, the management of liver cirrhosis and its complications has greatly evolved. However, prognosis is still dismal, and liver transplantation remains the sole curative treatment option.

This Collection collates original research articles and review articles regarding the management of liver cirrhosis and its complications. We were also interested in high-quality systematic reviews and meta-analyses in this field.

Topics include but are not limited to the following:

  • Management of compensated liver cirrhosis
  • Current and future therapies for cirrhosis associated portal hypertension
  • Management of upper gastrointestinal bleeding, ascites, hepatic encephalopathy, hepatic hydrothorax, hypersplenism, hepatic myelopathy, cirrhotic cardiomyopathy, infection, acute kidney injury, malnutrition, and portal vein thrombosis in liver cirrhosis
  • Use of liver support devices and extracorporeal therapies in advanced cirrhosis
  • Use of direct antiviral drugs, statins, anticoagulants, non-selective beta-blockers, human albumin infusions, and endoscopic variceal treatment in liver cirrhosis
  • Early use of transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) in severe complications of liver cirrhosis
  • Early assessment of renal function, cardiac function, and nutritional status in liver cirrhosis
  • Role of gut microbiota in cirrhosis and associated clinical events
  • Pathogenesis, prognosis, and management of acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF)
  • Risk factors and surveillance for hepatocellular carcinoma in liver cirrhosis
  • Primary and secondary prophylaxis of gastroesophageal variceal bleeding
  • Impact of spontaneous portosystemic shunts (SPSS) on patients’ outcomes and its management in liver cirrhosis
  • Management of liver transplantation candidates and recipients
  • Short- and long-term prognosis of liver cirrhosis

Please email Dr Marie-Therese Noedl, the inhouse editor for BMC Gastroenterology (marie-therese.noedl@springernature.com) if you have any questions.

Meet the Guest Editors

Dr Xingshun Qi

New Content ItemDr Xingshun Qi is a deputy director at the Department of Gastroenterology at General Hospital of Northern Theater Command (formerly General Hospital of Shenyang Military Area) now. His major research interests are the management of liver cirrhosis, portal hypertension (especially portal vein thrombosis and Budd-Chiari syndrome), and hepatocellular carcinoma. His H-index is 40 with 5359 citations to date.

Dr Cyriac Abby Philips

New Content Item

Dr Philips is a clinician scientist at The Liver Institute, Rajagiri Hospital, Kerala, India. His pioneering work in Hepatology was the introduction of healthy donor fecal transplant for patients with severe alcohol-associated hepatitis, the first randomized trial on colloids versus crystalloids in sepsis-induced hypotension in cirrhotics and novel data on clinical outcomes and toxicology of complementary and alternative medicine related liver injury from India, known as Ayush-liver injury.

Dr Fernando Gomes Romeiro

New Content ItemAfter graduating in Medicine, Dr. Fernando Romeiro concluded the Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology medical residencies at São Paulo State University (Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho), where he also concluded his Doctorate in Internal Medicine Pathophysiology. He received the title of Gastroenterology specialist from the Brazilian Federation of Gastroenterology and is a member of the Brazilian Society of Hepatology. He is professor of Clinical Gastroenterology in the same University, where he is also the supervisor of the Gastroenterology Medical Residency. He is a board member of two Postgraduate courses and takes part of the CPFig Research Group - Clinical Research Group on Liver Pathobiology, in the Directory of CNPq Brazil Research Groups.

Dr Le Wang

New Content ItemDr Le Wang is affiliated to the College of General Hospital of Northern Theater Command of China Medical University now. Her major research interests are the management of liver cirrhosis and portal hypertension (especially portal vein thrombosis and gastroesophageal variceal bleeding).

  1. Type C hepatitis B-related acute-on-chronic liver failure (HBV-ACLF), which is based on decompensated cirrhosis, has different laboratory tests, precipitating events, organ failure and clinical outcomes. The p...

    Authors: Chunyan Li, Hao Hu, Chengzhi Bai, Huaqian Xu, Lin Liu and Shanhong Tang
    Citation: BMC Gastroenterology 2024 24:191
    Content type: Research Published on:

  2. Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is a neuropsychiatric syndrome that affects the prognosis of patients with liver disease and is considered an independent risk factor for hospitalization and death. Rifaximin has be...

    Authors: Guihua Fang, Shuna Liu and Bin Liu
    Citation: BMC Gastroenterology 2024 24:94
    Content type: Research Published on:

  4. It is widely known that muscle mass influences the outcomes of many chronic diseases. Erector spine mass is a convenient parameter obtained from routine abdominal computed tomography (CT). The clinical applica...

    Authors: Chao Zhou, Yuan Liu, Xiaoxiao Liang, Ning Zhang, Tingting He, Jingjing Zhang, Jin Zhang, Shuangnan Fu, Xin Li, Pengcheng Liu, Tianyi Zhang and Man Gong
    Citation: BMC Gastroenterology 2023 23:367
    Content type: Research Published on:

  5. Sex and reproductive status differences exist in both non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and body composition. Our purpose was to investigate the relationship between body composition and the severity o...

    Authors: Yu-tian Cao, Wen-hui Zhang, Yan Lou, Qian-hua Yan, Yu-juan Zhang, Fang Qi, Liu-lan Xiang, Tian-su Lv, Zhu-yuan Fang, Jiang-yi Yu and Xi-qiao Zhou
    Citation: BMC Gastroenterology 2023 23:364
    Content type: Research Published on:

  6. Hepatitis B virus-associated acute-on-chronic liver failure (HBV-ACLF) has been confirmed as a prevalent form of end-stage liver disease in people subjected to chronic HBV infection. However, there has been ra...

    Authors: Hanyun Tu, Rong Liu, Anni Zhang, Sufei Yang and Chengjiang Liu
    Citation: BMC Gastroenterology 2023 23:342
    Content type: Research Published on:

  7. The purpose of this study was to establish a comprehensive prognosis nomogram for patients with liver cirrhosis complicated with hepatic encephalopathy (HE) in the intensive care unit (ICU) and to evaluate the...

    Authors: Wansheng Yan, Zhihui Yao, Qiutong Ou and Gang Ye
    Citation: BMC Gastroenterology 2023 23:335
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  8. The literature is sparse on the association between serum liver fibrosis markers and the development of hepatic decompensation in patients with compensated cirrhosis. We aimed to assessed whether the serum liv...

    Authors: Qingling Chen, Ling Mei, Rui Zhong, Ping Han, Jun Wen, Xu Han, Lu Zhai, Lili Zhao and Jia Li
    Citation: BMC Gastroenterology 2023 23:317
    Content type: Research Published on:

  9. To appraise effective predictors for infection in patients with decompensated cirrhosis (DC) by using XGBoost algorithm in a retrospective case-control study.

    Authors: Jing Zheng, Jianjun Li, Zhengyu Zhang, Yue Yu, Juntao Tan, Yunyu Liu, Jun Gong, Tingting Wang, Xiaoxin Wu and Zihao Guo
    Citation: BMC Gastroenterology 2023 23:310
    Content type: Research Published on:

  11. The optimal timing of endoscopy in liver cirrhosis with acute variceal bleeding (AVB) remains controversial in current guidelines and studies.

    Authors: Mengyuan Peng, Zhaohui Bai, Deli Zou, Shixue Xu, Chunmei Wang, Metin BaÅŸaranoÄŸlu, Cyriac Abby Philips, Xiaozhong Guo, Xiaodong Shao and Xingshun Qi
    Citation: BMC Gastroenterology 2023 23:219
    Content type: Research Published on:

  12. Hepatorenal syndrome (HRS) is a life-threatening complication of end-stage liver disease. This study aimed to clarify the status of HRS in Japan by analyzing the Japanese Diagnosis Procedure Combination database.

    Authors: Kazuya Okushin, Hayato Yamana, Ryosuke Tateishi, Masaya Sato, Takeya Tsutsumi, Hiroki Matsui, Kiyohide Fushimi, Hideo Yasunaga, Kazuhiko Koike and Mitsuhiro Fujishiro
    Citation: BMC Gastroenterology 2023 23:218
    Content type: Research Published on:

  13. Osteosarcopenia, defined as the coexistence of sarcopenia and osteoporosis, is associated with adverse clinical outcomes. The present study investigated the prognostic significance of osteosarcopenia in patien...

    Authors: Chisato Saeki, Tomoya Kanai, Kaoru Ueda, Masanori Nakano, Tsunekazu Oikawa, Yuichi Torisu, Masayuki Saruta and Akihito Tsubota
    Citation: BMC Gastroenterology 2023 23:196
    Content type: Research Published on:

  14. Liver cirrhosis is the final stage of chronic liver disease. Complications due to progression of liver disease may deteriorate the liver function and worsen prognosis. Previous studies have shown that patients...

    Authors: Irsan Hasan, Saut Horas Hatoguan Nababan, Anugrah Dwi Handayu, Gita Aprilicia and Rino Alvani Gani
    Citation: BMC Gastroenterology 2023 23:190
    Content type: Research Published on:

  15. Partial splenic embolization (PSE) is a non-surgical procedure which was initially used to treat hypersplenism. Furthermore, partial splenic embolization can be used for the treatment of different conditions, ...

    Authors: Vlad Pavel, Gregor Scharf, Patricia Mester, Lea U. Krauss, Karsten Gülow, Alexander Mehrl, Martina Müller and Stephan Schmid
    Citation: BMC Gastroenterology 2023 23:180
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  16. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a kind of primary liver cancer. It is a common malignant tumor of digestive system that is difficult to predict the prognosis of patients. As an important epigenetic modificat...

    Authors: Li Yang, Yi-ran Wang, Zhi-qiang Mou, Ping-fu Xiong, Kun Deng, Jian Wen and Jing Li
    Citation: BMC Gastroenterology 2023 23:131
    Content type: Research Published on:

  18. This study aims to construct and verify a nomogram model for microvascular invasion (MVI) based on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tumor characteristics and differential protein expressions, and explore the cli...

    Authors: Zhenglu Wang, Lei Cao, Jianxi Wang, Hanlin Wang, Tingting Ma, Zhiqi Yin, Wenjuan Cai, Lei Liu, Tao Liu, Hengde Ma, Yamin Zhang, Zhongyang Shen and Hong Zheng
    Citation: BMC Gastroenterology 2023 23:89
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  19. Studies concerning the impact of air temperature on esophagogastric variceal bleeding (EGVB) have yielded conflicting results. Our study aimed to evaluate the correlation between air temperature and EGVB.

    Authors: Jianhong Chen, Ziting Wu, Hui Gao, Li Li, Yanling Wang, Jingjing Han, Chuan Zhang, Pengpeng Ding and Jing Wu
    Citation: BMC Gastroenterology 2023 23:52
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  20. Alcohol cessation is the cornerstone of treatment for alcohol-related cirrhosis. This study evaluated associations between medical conversations about alcohol use disorder (AUD) treatment, AUD treatment engage...

    Authors: Wheytnie Alexandre, Haseeb Muhammad, Olufunso Agbalajobi, Grace Zhang, Theresa Gmelin, Adeyinka Adejumo, Alan Noll, Naudia L. Jonassaint, Andrea DiMartini, Ramon Bataller and Shari S. Rogal
    Citation: BMC Gastroenterology 2023 23:29
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  21. Regorafenib is an oral multikinase inhibitor and became the first second-line systemic treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) following the phase III RESORCE trial. This single-center study retrospective...

    Authors: Qingwei Zhu, Wei Rao, Junyu Huo, Zixiang Li, Song Wang, Wensheng Qiu, Ge Guan, Yang Xin, Ning Fan, Jinzhen Cai and Liqun Wu
    Citation: BMC Gastroenterology 2023 23:28
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  23. In China, hepatorenal syndrome is a serious complication in the decompensated stage of hepatitis B cirrhosis, which requires early clinical intervention, so the early diagnosis of hepatorenal syndrome is cruci...

    Authors: Shouhao Wang, Zhewen Zhou, Chengan Xu, Hanzhu Chen, Wenya Ren, Xingdi Yang, Qiaoqiao Yin, Wei Zheng and Hongying Pan
    Citation: BMC Gastroenterology 2023 23:1
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  24. There is strong evidence demonstrating the incidence of Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) among patients with cirrhosis, with the initiation of antiplatelet therapy being subject to debate due to an increased risk...

    Authors: Shameel Shafqat, Ajeet Kumar Lohana, Rajesh Kumar Bansari and Om Parkash
    Citation: BMC Gastroenterology 2022 22:543
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  25. Early prediction of severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) plays an important role in timely treatment decisions. Soluble T cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain-3 (sTIM-3) has been applied as a potential biomarker fo...

    Authors: Fushuang Wang, Minghui Zhu, Yao Meng and Min Lin
    Citation: BMC Gastroenterology 2022 22:522
    Content type: Research Published on:

  26. The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy and safety of the combination of low-molecular-weight heparin + dexamethasone after partial splenic embolization in cirrhotic patients with massive splenom...

    Authors: Haohao Lu, Chuansheng Zheng, Bin Xiong and Xiangwen Xia
    Citation: BMC Gastroenterology 2022 22:470
    Content type: Research Published on:

    The Correction to this article has been published in BMC Gastroenterology 2023 23:27

  27. Patients with low HBV DNA levels (< 2000 IU/mL), HBV DNA negative, and HBsAg-negative hepatitis B virus(HBV)infection can still progress to decompensated cirrhosis; however, clinical research data in such pati...

    Authors: Xu Huang, Meimei Yan, Zerun Deng, Lei Yao, Dan Han and Lihua Sun
    Citation: BMC Gastroenterology 2022 22:452
    Content type: Research Published on:

  28. Aberrant cytokeratin 7 expression by hepatocytes (CK7+Hs) is the hallmark characteristic of cholestasis diseases, especially in ductopenia diseases such as primary biliary cholangitis (PBC). This study attempted ...

    Authors: Hong-Li Liu, An-Yin Yang, Qing-Fang Xiong, Yan-Dan Zhong, Du-Xian Liu, Ping Huang, Xiao-Ning Feng, Yu Zhang and Yong-Feng Yang
    Citation: BMC Gastroenterology 2022 22:443
    Content type: Research Published on:

  29. Portal hypertensive gastropathy (PHG) is often underestimated in clinical diagnosis. Gastrointestinal bleeding in cirrhosis of PHG accounts for approximately 10% of upper gastrointestinal bleeding. However, th...

    Authors: Ran Wu, Kunyi Liu, Chengyi Shi, Hui Tian and Na Wang
    Citation: BMC Gastroenterology 2022 22:436
    Content type: Research Published on:

  30. We retrospectively compared the effect of endoscopic variceal obturation (EVO) and retrograde transvenous obliteration (RTO) in acute cardiofundal variceal bleeding.

    Authors: Han Ah Lee, Jungwon Kwak, Sung Bum Cho, Young-Sun Lee, Young Kul Jung, Ji Hoon Kim, Seung Up Kim, Hyonggin An, Hyung Joon Yim, Jong Eun Yeon and Yeon Seok Seo
    Citation: BMC Gastroenterology 2022 22:355
    Content type: Research Published on: