THE NATURAL HISTORY OF CIRRHOSISExperience with an Unselected Group of Patients

One hundred and fifty-five patients with cirrhosis were seen in a general hospital in Birmingham between 1959 and 1964. This represented an incidence of 0.17 per cent. in the hospital population. One-third of the patients were alcoholic, and nearly half had no recognizable cause for the cirrhosis. Only 14.3 per cent. of the patients survived five years, and the prognosis, especially among those with ascites, had not improved in the last two decades. Gastrointestinal haemorrhage was a relatively minor problem, while hepatoma was a frequent complication. A comparison with other series suggested that the incidence of cirrhosis associated with alcoholism had increased in this country, and that hepatoma had become commoner.