Managing Varices: Drugs, Bands, and Shunts
Up to 50% of patients with cirrhosis have esophageal varices at initial endoscopy, and nearly all patients with varices have a high portal pressure, that is, an hepatic venous pressure…
Acute Liver Failure: Current Practice and Recent Advances
Acute liver failure (ALF), also referred as “fulminant hepatic failure,” is a rare syndrome characterized by rapid onset of severe hepatic dysfunction in the absence of preexistent liver disease. The…
Noninvasive Tools to Assess Hepatic Fibrosis: Ready for Prime Time?
Often regarded as the gold standard for fibrosis assessment, liver biopsy does carry associated risks given its invasive nature. Moreover, liver biopsy is not a true gold standard owing to…
Hepatitis B: Modern End Points of Treatment and the Specter of Viral Resistance
The ultimate goal of treating a chronic infectious disease is the eradication of the infectious agent to prevent organ damage or death. The natural history of untreated chronic hepatitis B…
Emerging Therapies in Hepatitis C: Dawn of the Era of the Direct-Acting Antivirals
Infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a worldwide epidemic affecting up to 3% of the world’s population. Approximately 80% of people infected with HCV will go on to develop…
Hepatology Update: Current Management and New Therapies
David A. Sass, MD, AGAF, Guest Editor It is my distinct privilege to be the guest editor of the September 2011 issue of Gastroenterology Clinics of North America entitled, “Hepatology…
Difficult Defecation: Difficult Problem Assessment and Management; What Really Helps?
A subset of patients with chronic constipation, up to 50% at tertiary centers, have difficult defecation, which can be suspected by clinical features and confirmed by anorectal tests. Symptoms of…
Nutritional Support in the Severely Compromised Motility Patient: When and How?
Chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction (CIPO) is today a significant indication for home parenteral nutrition (HPN) in both adults and children. CIPO refers to a heterogeneous group of disorders characterized by symptoms…
Challenges in the Swallowing Mechanism: Nonobstructive Dysphagia in the Era of High-Resolution Manometry and Impedance
Esophageal motility disorders may be an explanation of dysphagia in patients after exclusion of esophageal structural lesions by endoscopy and radiography and eosinophilic esophagitis by histology. The best defined motility…
Postoperative Problems 2011: Fundoplication and Obesity Surgery
The population of the Western world is abundantly exposed to food. Together with the introduction of fast food, this situation has contributed to an exponential increase in morbid obesity. Similarly,…
