Clinicopathological studies of liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma in a general hospital.

Clinicopathological studies of 181 patients with liver cirrhosis undergoing autopsy in the pathology department of a municipal hospital between 1973 and 1976 are reported. The main etiological types were alcoholic (25.4 per cent), HBsAg positive (14.9 per cent), and cryptogenic cirrhosis (54.7 per cent). Four patients had multifactorial and secondary biliary cirrhosis and one patient had congestive cirrhosis. The morphological characteristics of the condition and the age and sex distribution of the patients were analyzed in each etiological group. Hepatocellular carcinoma occurred in 28.7 per cent of the cases, most frequently in association with HBsAg positive cirrhosis. Hepatocellular atypia was significantly more frequent in HBsAg positive than in other etiological types of cirrhosis and significantly more frequent in cases associated with hepatocellular carcinoma than in those not associated with it.