Retrospective Analysis of Fatal Cases of Liver Cirrhosis over 20-Year Period

Abstract

Patients with a liver cirrhosis are at high risk for a number of complications that significantly reduce their life expectancy. The purpose of the study was to conduct a retrospective analysis of fatal cases of liver cirrhosis during the 20-year period. Material and methods. In the pathologoanatomic department of the V. T. Zaycev Institute of General and Urgent Surgery of National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine». A retrospective analysis of the medical records for the period 2001-2020 (20 years) was performed in order to study the lethal cases of liver cirrhosis during the 20-year period. To analyze the dynamics of the number of deaths from liver cirrhosis we used dynamic series indicators. To compare two independent groups, we used Student's t-test for signs with Gaussian distribution and Mann-Whitney U-test for signs with non-normal distribution. Results and discussion. Over 20 years, the dynamics of the number of deaths changed unevenly. The analysis of the efficiency indicator, which was calculated against the previous level (2001), showed a decrease in the indicator for the 20-year period only in 2002 and 2004, namely by 79.8 and 81.5% respectively. In other years there was only an increase in the indicator as compared with the previous level. In the years 2001-2010 371 patients died, their average age was 52.2±13.7 years. Most of them were males: 263 cases (70.9%) with an average age of 49.9±13.1. The number of dead women was 108 (29.1%) with an average age of 57.9±13.7 years. According to their age structure, most of the patients were 41-60 years old: 50.1% of males (137 cases) and 45.4% of females (49 cases). From 2011 to 2020 years 378 patients died, their average age was 54.9±12.9 years. Most of them were males: 284 cases (75.1%), average age - 53.5±12.3 years. The number of deceased women were 94 cases (24.9%), average age - 58.9±13.9 years. According to the age structure, most of the patients were 41-60 years old: 78.4% of males (152 cases), 24.9% of females (37 cases). Conclusion. When comparing the two semiannual periods 2001-2010 and 2011-2020, we found that in 2011-2020 there was a significant increase in the number of deaths from liver cirrhosis at ages 41-60 years from 50.1% to 78.39%, (p <0.05) and in both cases men predominated. Among causes of death, depending on complications, bleeding from varicose esophageal and gastric veins was found to be the most important (66.0% and 53.2%, respectively), but this indicator decreased in 2011-2020 (p <0.05). Bleeding occurred more frequently in men than in women (p <0.05). In 2001-2010, the mean age of women was significantly higher than that of men (58.5±7.1 and 49.5±6.4 years, respectively), (p <0.05), and in contrast, in 2011-2020, the mean age of men was significantly higher than that of women (59.1±6.6 and 52.3±6.9 years, respectively), (p <0.05)