The Role of Decompensation in Cirrhosis

Cirrhosis is defined as any essentially organ dysfunction or complication related to chronic liver disease. People can live with cirrhosis without a symptom, but when they come in to see us as hospice, it's because they're ill. The infection or spontaneous bacterial peritonitis, hepatorhenyl syndrome with acute kidney injury, GI bleeding, portosystemic encephalopathy are the main things we think about with decompensation.