CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis result in about 35,000 deaths each year in the United States. Cirrhosis is the ninth leading cause of death in the United States and is responsible for 1.2% of all US deaths. Many patients die from the disease in their fifth or sixth decade of life. Patients with the syndrome of FHF have a 50-80% mortality rate unless they are salvaged by liver transplantation. 1 In Indonesia, liver cirrhosis is on the top rank of liver disease, after hepatocellular carcinoma and chronic hepatitis. This disease also at the 8 rank of top ten disease that caused death in Indonesia.2 The term cirrhosis was first introduced by Laennec in 1826 . Cirrhosis represents a late stage of progressive hepatic fibrosis characterized by distortion of the hepatic architecture and the formation of regenerative nodules.3 Cirrhosis can disturb intrahepatic blood circulation, and at the very late stage can cause liver function failure step by step. If we look the report from developed country, patient that come to seek medical treatment because of cirrhosis symptoms is only about 30% from the disease population. For about 30% others, patients only know that they have cirrhosis coincidentally when they come to get treated for other diseases. For the rest, it is known only after an autopsy or never been acknowledge for the rest of the patient entire life.4 Cirrhosis gets worse over time and can become potentially life threatening. Although liver damage from cirrhosis cannot be reversed, but treatment could stop or delay further progression and reduce complications. So, our better knowledges about this disease will be useful to increase patients quality of life.