[Therapy of liver cirrhosis. Managing complications with fingertip control]

Chronic liver diseases often lead to cirrhosis of that organ. As this progresses, hepatic function decreases, and the risk of life-threatening complications increases. Common complications are variceal bleeding, ascites, spontaneous bacterial peritonitis, hepatic encephalopathy, hepatorenal syndrome and hepatocellular carcinoma. The only therapeutic option that offers a chance of a cure is transplantation which, however, owing to strict selection criteria and the limited number of donor organs, can be applied only in a minority of patients. For most of the cases, the therapeutic strategy comprises treatment of the underlying disease, prevention and symptomatic treatment of typical complications.