Loading...
Liver transplantation lengthens survival in patients with Child-Pugh stage C alcoholic cirrhosis, but whether patients with stage B disease benefit from transplantation is uncertain. Investigators in France randomized 120 patients with stage B alcoholic cirrhosis to immediate listing for liver transplantation or to standard care. Two thirds of immediate-listing patients received transplants at a median of 4 months, whereas 25% of usual-care patients (those who progressed to stage C disease) received transplants at a median of 12 months.
At 5 years, survival did not differ significantly by group (58% for immediate listing and 69% for standard care). Cancer-free survival was significantly lower for patients in the immediate-listing group (63% …