Masao Omata, Haruhiko Yoshida – 30 January 2004 – Viral hepatitis, by either hepatitis C virus (HCV) or hepatitis B virus (HBV), is the dominant cause of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This is to say that HCC may be prevented by controlling viral infection. Horizontal transmission of HCV has become obsolete owing to the discovery of the virus. Vertical transmission of HBV during delivery has been effectively prevented by vaccination and immunization of neonates. The efficacy of interferon therapy against HCV was recently much improved.

Riccardo Lencioni, Dania Cioni, Laura Crocetti, Carlo Bartolozzi – 30 January 2004 – Percutaneous ablation is considered the best treatment option for patients with early‐stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who are not candidates for surgical resection or liver transplantation. Several methods have been developed, including intratumoral injection of ethanol or acetic acid, and thermal ablation with radiofrequency, laser, microwaves, or cryosurgery. Percutaneous ethanol injection (PEI) has been the most widely used technique.

Thomas A. Gonwa, Linda Jennings, Martin L. Mai, Paul C. Stark, Andrew S. Levey, Goran B. Klintmalm – 30 January 2004 – The ability to estimate rather than measure the glomerular filtration rate (GFR) in patients before and after liver transplantation would be helpful in estimating risk, dosing drugs, and assessing long‐term toxicity of calcineurin inhibitors. Currently available equations for estimating the GFR have not been validated in either the pre‐ or post‐liver transplant population.

Adrian M. Di Bisceglie, Steven Strasberg – 30 January 2004 – The Consensus Panel makes the following recommendations based on the above currently available evidence. 1The primary staging should be clinical staging, which can be applied to all patients. The CLIP system should be the clincial staging system of choice, because it is generally applicable to most patients, it includes easily collected variables. Most importantly, it has been externally and prospectively validated.

Ali Canbay, Scott Friedman, Gregory J. Gores – 30 January 2004

Song Iy Han, Elaine Studer, Seema Gupta, Youwen Fang, Liang Qiao, Weiqun Li, Steven Grant, Philip B. Hylemon, Paul Dent – 30 January 2004 – Previously, we demonstrated that deoxycholic acid (DCA)‐induced ERK1/2 and AKT signaling in primary hepatocytes is a protective response. In the present study, we examined the regulation of the phosphatidylinositol 3 (PI3) kinase/AKT/glycogen synthase (kinase) 3 (GSK3)/glycogen synthase (GS) pathway by bile acids.

Juan Angel Fernández, Ricardo Robles, Caridad Marín, Francisco Sánchez‐Bueno, Pablo Ramírez, Pascual Parrilla – 6 January 2004 – The introduction of biliary laparoscopic surgery led to an increase in the incidence of liver hilum injuries. These types of lesions are very serious, because they can lead to secondary biliary cirrhosis or fulminant hepatic failure and the need for liver transplantion (LT). We present three cases of liver hilum injuries, which were treated with LT; one case was due to severe and persistent cholangitis, and two cases were due to fulminant hepatic failure.

Yoji Kishi, Yasuhiko Sugawara, Junichi Kaneko, Nobuhisa Akamatsu, Hiroshi Imamura, Hirotaka Asato, Norihiro Kokudo, Masatoshi Makuuchi – 6 January 2004 – Living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) using right liver grafts is now widely performed. Anatomic classifications of the hepatic artery for right liver procurement, however, are limited. In this study, celiac and mesenteric angiograms of 223 consecutive living donors in a single institution were evaluated. Details of the arterial anastomosis and results were reviewed in 72 patients who underwent primary LDLT using right liver grafts.

Sergei Mechtcheriakov, Ivo W. Graziadei, Michael Mattedi, Thomas Bodner, André Kugener, Hartmann H. Hinterhuber, Josef Marksteiner, Wolfgang Vogel – 6 January 2004 – Previous studies have suggested reversibility of minimal hepatic encephalopathy in patients with liver cirrhosis after liver transplantation (LT), however, this topic is controversially discussed. We investigated this issue in a prospective study on liver cirrhotic patients listed for LT.

Raffaele Girlanda, Abdul H Mohsen, Heather Smith, Erwin Sablon, Man‐Fung Yuen, John O'Grady, Paolo Muiesan, Mohamed Rela, Nigel Heaton, Suzanne Norris – 6 January 2004 – Hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotypes have been associated with specific patterns of disease and response to antiviral therapy. We investigated the effect of HBV genotype on HBV recurrence and mortality after liver transplantation (LT). Pretransplant sera of 45 hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) positive adults were submitted for HBV genotyping by a reverse‐phase hybridization line probe assay with genotype‐specific probes.