title: [Epidemiology and natural history of cirrhosis].
abstract: The cirrhosis prevalence in the whole French population can be estimated between 2000 and 3300 cases/million of individuals. Alcoholism, hepatitis C virus and non alcoholic fatty liver disease are the three most common causes of cirrhosis in France. About 40% of patients with cirrhosis have compensated cirrhosis and are asymptomatic over long period of 1 to 10 years. Decompensation of cirrhosis was considered when a patient first developed one of the mayor complications of the disease (ascites, jaundice, encephalopathy or gastrointestinal haemorrhage). After the first decompensation, the incidence of death is about 10% by year, in the absence of hepatic transplantation. The mortality of patients with cirrhosis and acute varicose bleeding has greatly decreased over the past 2 decades in concurrence with an early and combined use of pharmacological and endoscopic therapy, but hepatocellular carcinoma is the most frequent life threatening complication.
authors.affiliation: Service hépato-gastroentérologie, hôpital Antoine Béclère, 92141 Clamart Cedex. sylvie.naveau@abc.ap-hop-paris.fr
authors.forename: Sylvie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Naveau
authors.forename: Gabriel
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Perlemuter
authors.forename: Axel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Balian
mesh_terms: D001201:Ascites / Q000503:physiopathology; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000503:physiopathology; D005234:Fatty Liver / Q000453:epidemiology; D005602:France / Q000453:epidemiology; D006471:Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage / Q000503:physiopathology; D006501:Hepatic Encephalopathy / Q000503:physiopathology; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D006975:Hypertension, Portal / Q000503:physiopathology; D007565:Jaundice / Q000503:physiopathology; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D008104:Liver Cirrhosis, Alcoholic / Q000453:epidemiology; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000503:physiopathology; D016031:Liver Transplantation; D015995:Prevalence