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Jang: Brief Review of the Revised Korean Association for the Study of the Liver Clinical Practice Guidelines for Liver Cirrhosis: Varices, Hepatic Encephalopathy and Related Complications
Brief Summary of Practice Guideline

The Korean Journal of Gastroenterology 2019; 74(5): 274-280.

Published online: 27 November 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4166/kjg.2019.74.5.274

Brief Review of the Revised Korean Association for the Study of the Liver Clinical Practice Guidelines for Liver Cirrhosis: Varices, Hepatic Encephalopathy and Related Complications

Eun Sun Jang

Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seongnam, Korea.

Correspondence to: Eun Sun Jang, Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seoul National University College of Medicine, 82 Gumi-ro 173beon-gil, Bundang-gu, Seongnam 13620, Korea. Tel: +82-31-787-7067, Fax: +82-31-787-4052, janges@snubh.org

Received 15 October 2019       Revised 19 October 2019       Accepted 28 October 2019

Copyright © 2019. Korean Society of Gastroenterology

Korean Society of Gastroenterology

(open-access):

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Liver cirrhosis patients are suffering from many complications, which are directly related to a poor prognosis. Although there have been many recent advances in diagnosis and treatment for varix and hepatic encephalopathy in cirrhotic patients, the standard practice for these conditions should consider the different medical resources and etiology of these liver diseases among various countries. The Korean Association for the Study of the Liver published in 2005 a clinical practice guideline for the treatment of cirrhosis complications, and this year, they revised the guideline for treating gastroesophageal varices and hepatic encephalopathy. This review summarizes the revised practice guideline and emphasizes the updated recommendation.

Keywords: Liver cirrhosis, Esophageal and gastric varices, Hepatic encephalopathy, Guideline

Figures and Tables

Fig. 1

The prevention of initial gastroesophegeal variceal bleeding. Adapted from 2019 KASL clinical practice guidelines for liver cirrhosis: varices, hepatic encephalopathy, and related complications2, with permission from Korean Association for the Study of the Liver. GOV, gastroesophageal varices; IGV, isolated gastric varices; RTO, retrograde transvenous obliteration.

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Fig. 2

The treatment of acute variceal bleeding and prevention of gastroesophegeal variceal rebleeding. Adapted from 2019 KASL clinical practice guidelines for liver cirrhosis: varices, hepatic encephalopathy, and related complications2, with permission from Korean Association for the Study of the Liver. GOV, gastroesophageal varices; IGV, isolated gastric varices; RTO, retrograde transvenous obliteration; TIPS, transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt.

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Fig. 3

The treatment and prevention of recurrent hepatic encephalopathy. Adapted from 2019 KASL clinical practice guidelines for liver cirrhosis: varices, hepatic encephalopathy, and related complications2, with permission from Korean Association for the Study of the Liver. P.O., per-oral; BCAA, branched chain amino acid; IV, intravenous; LOLA, L-ornithine-L-aspartate.

kjg-74-274-g003

Notes

Financial support None.

Conflict of interest None.

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ORCID iDs

Eun Sun Jang
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4274-2582

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