Description

For patients with end-stage cirrhosis there are no treatment options other than transplantation, a medically and ethically challenging procedure. The challenge therefore is to prevent the need for liver transplantation in as many patients with cirrhosis as possible.

In order to reach this aim, patients with cirrhosis should be identified and followed regularly according to the highest standard of current knowledge. Numerous aspects of the disease need to be detailed: its epidemiology in Switzerland, its pathophysiology including the mechanism of scar tissue generation and resolution, the associated immune dysfunction and subsequent organ failures, disease related psychosocial and behavioural factors, perceived burden of liver cirrhosis in patients, diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for disease dynamics, both progression and regression of disease, and stage-specific therapeutic strategies.

This is a national prospective long-term multicentre observational cohort study following patients with cirrhosis in order to systematically and longitudinally record epidemiological, clinical, histological, psychosocial and patient-reported data and biobank biological material from patients with cirrhosis.