Hepatology for the Clinician

A problem-oriented handbook covering the effective therapeutic management of patients with liver disorders. It provides a general view of diagnostic procedures and offers specific information on gathering and interpreting data and tests.

---

This problem-oriented handbook covers the effective therapeutic management of patients with liver disorders. Throughout the text, this unique book demonstrates the clinical decision-making process used by primary care physicians, internists, gastroenterologists and hepatologists to select the most appropriate approaches for diagnosis and treatment. It presents the practical steps necessary to manage such particular clinical situations as pregnancy and the liver; hepatic encephalopathy; acute hepatitis and hepatorenal syndrome. Challenging established ideas, this guide blends general clinical skills with precise analytical strategies. It provides a general view of diagnostic procedures and offers specific information on gathering and interpreting data and tests. The book also describes how clinicians evaluate such factors as specificity, predictive values and cost-effectiveness in developing strategies for patient assessment. In addition it offers useful graphic material, including flow charts and algorithms, to illustrate the decision-making process and includes guidelines for using the newest therapeutic modalities in hepatobiliary disease.