Survival of and hepatoma development in patients with liver cirrhosis.

A follow-up study was made on 75 patients with liver cirrhosis. The patients were divided into 5 groups (discontinued alcoholic group, continued alcoholic group, hepatitis B group, male non-alcoholic non-hepatitis B group, and female non-alcoholic non-hepatitis B group). Hepatoma developed in 50% of the hepatitis B group, but in 1-9% of the other 4 groups. Abstinence did not accelerate the development of hepatoma. As for survival after onset of liver cirrhosis, the 1-4-year survival of the female non-alcoholic non-hepatitis B group and the final (8-year) survival of the hepatitis B group appeared to be lower than that of the other groups. Though the survival of the discontinued alcoholic group was seemingly higher that that of the continued alcoholic group, the difference was small and not significant.