The Natural History of Cirrhosis

Abstract

A SUBSTANTIAL incidence of previous hepatitis has been reported in several small series^{1 2 3} of patients with postnecrotic and posthepatitic cirrhosis, and viral hepatitis is considered a not unusual precursor to this type of cirrhosis.^{4 5 6} The prognosis for patients with postnecrotic cirrhosis has generally been held to be less favorable than that for patients with Laennec's (fatty nutritional) cirrhosis. Whether pathologists are consistently able to distinguish among varieties of cirrhosis is a question that has not been examined since 1947.⁷ Certain pathological terms used in the classification of cirrhosis imply an etiology for which there may be no evidence in a . . .