[Posthepatitic cirrhosis of the liver without symptoms: observance about 22 years (author's transl)].

There are only a few studies about sufficiently documented posthepatitic cirrhosis of the liver for more than two decennaries. Therefore we report about a patient, who showed at laparoscopy in 1954 a posthepatitic cirrhosis of the liver. Since the end of the fifty years the laboratory findings had normalized and the patient worked hard and felt himself well. At a control laparoscopy with liver biopsy in 1975 a complete inactive cirrhosis of the liver was confirmed. Blood samples were normal and HBsAG seronegative. Therefore, it seems to be possible, that in some few cases cirrhosis of the liver remaining without clinical symptoms over many years - for example in late prisoners of the war, who returned home with an inactive full developed cirrhosis of the liver - but now is detected.