The most important recent advance in the treatment of liver failure

Dr Pere Ginès is a professor of medicine at University of Barcelona, Spain, chairman of the Liver Unit at Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, and clinical investigator with 30-year experience in research on complications of cirrhosis.

If you were to name the most important recent advance in the treatment of liver failure, what would it be?

Pere Ginès, MD, PhD: I think that the most important recent advance in the field of cirrhosis is the new description of a new syndrome called acute-on-chronic liver failure. This syndrome is important because it is the main cause of death in patients with cirrhosis. You are probably not aware that cirrhosis is one of the main causes of death in the world. Every year about a million individuals die because of cirrhosis in all countries in the world. So, cirrhosis is the main cause of death, and among the different causes of death in patients with cirrhosis, acute-on-chronic liver failure is the major one. This is why the most important advance in the field of cirrhosis in recent years has been the description of this syndrome and the development of new pathogenic theories that explain the mechanism [as to] why this syndrome develops. Thank you very much.