Mortalidad hospitalaria en pacientes cirróticos en un centro de tercer nivel de Latinoamérica

Cirrhosis of the liver continues to be a frequent cause of mortality worldwide, and is the twelfth cause of death in North America. However, establishing prognosis in patients with cirrhosis of the liver is still a clinical challenge, due to its great variability and its dependence on many factors, such as etiology, liver function status, the presence and severity of portal hypertension, the possibility of treatment, and the potential development of hepatocellular carcinoma. From a practical viewpoint, we know that patients with decompensated cirrhosis have a worse outcome (median 2year survival), compared with patients with compensated disease (median 9 to 12-year survival). The conventional Child-Pugh or MELD score scales are also available to us and aid in establishing prognosis and prioritizing liver transplantation patients. Nevertheless, when patients with cirrhosis of the liver are hospitalized, mortality increases significantly, ranging from 44 to 74%. This variability is determined more by the degree of organ failure than by the severity of the liver disease. There are several models for predicting mortality in patients with acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF). The Chronic Liver Failure in Cirrhosis (CANONIC) study developed one such model. It is a prospective and multicenter study conducted by the European Consortium for the Study of Chronic Liver Failure (CLIF). Its aims were to develop a clinical definition for ACLF and establish a model for evaluating the short-term risk of mortality in those patients. The