Published online Jun 21, 2014. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v20.i23.7223
Revised: January 7, 2014
Accepted: April 5, 2014
Published online: June 21, 2014
Cirrhosis patients’ comorbidities are their other diseases than cirrhosis. Comorbidities are neither causes nor consequences of cirrhosis, but they can increase mortality and are therefore clinically important. They are also an important source of confounding in epidemiologic studies. Comorbidity scoring systems have been developed as tools to measure the cirrhosis patient’s total burden of comorbidity, and they are useful in the clinic and for epidemiologic studies. The recently developed CirCom score is the only comorbidity scoring system developed specifically for cirrhosis patients, and it may be preferred over the older, generic, and more complex Charlson comorbidity index. Studies of individual comorbid diseases can provide insight into the interactions between cirrhosis and other diseases and thus into the pathophysiology of cirrhosis. This article reviews the literature on comorbidity in cirrhosis.
Core tip: Cirrhosis patients’ comorbidities are their other diseases than cirrhosis. They can increase mortality and are therefore clinically important. They are also an important source of confounding in epidemiologic studies. Comorbidity scoring systems have been developed as tools to measure the cirrhosis patient’s total burden of comorbidity, and they are useful in the clinic and for epidemiologic studies. Studies of individual comorbid diseases can provide insight into the interactions between cirrhosis and other diseases and thus into the pathophysiology of cirrhosis. This article reviews the literature on comorbidity in cirrhosis.