Summary
IN a review of 6,097 necropsies over a 13 year period in Dublin, cirrhosis was found in 127 (2.1%). No increase in frequency was noted during the period under consideration. Alcohol was the aetiological factor in 57% of cases. Alcoholic hepatitis was superimposed on cirrhosis in 14% and 27 patients had alcoholic hepatitis without cirrhosis. In cases of cirrhosis, the male: female ratio was 1.4:1 but in alcoholic hepatitis without cirrhosis it was 1:1. The commonest cause of death in cirrhosis as a whole was bronchopneumonia while in alcoholic hepatitis and alcoholic cirrhosis it was liver failure.
Seventeen patients (0.27%) had hepatocellular carcinoma, 15 (88%) in association with cirrhosis, nearly half (7) being in the alcoholic cirrhosis group.
In Ireland hepatocellular carcinoma is an uncommon finding at necropsy and is usually associated with alcoholic cirrhosis rather than post-viral or cryptogenic cirrhosis.
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McDonald, G.S.A., Boran, G.P.R. & Weir, D.G. Cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma: A 13 year necropsy study with attention to the role of alcohol. I.J.M.S. 154, 140–145 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02937256
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02937256