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The management of liver diseases is undergoing an era of major scientific advances in pathogenesis, diagnosis, management and treatment. The spectrum of liver disorders is changing. There is a rising epidemic of obesity and non‐alcoholic steatohepatitis, as a result, it has become a common indication for liver transplantation in many countries. With the advent of the new direct‐acting antivirals, the cure rate of hepatitis C has improved dramatically. Hepatocellular carcinoma is now a major health problem and one of the leading causes of death attributable to cancer. These are only a few of the exciting advances in hepatology over the last years.
This issue of Clinical Liver Disease has been developed in collaboration with the Latin American Association for the Study of the Liver (ALEH) and presents a collection of 7 original review articles. Latin America is a vast region composed of 20 countries with more than 600 million people with a large disparity not only in economic resources but in medical practice as well. Therefore, we focus on topics that reflect where we stand in Latin America regarding the management of different scopes of liver diseases.
First, Dr. Arrese and coauthors introduce the epidemiology aspects of non‐alcoholic fibrosis liver disease in Latin America. Next, Dr. Ridruejo and Dr. Soza discuss which strategies should be implemented in our region to achieve World Health Organization goals of eliminating hepatitis C by 2030. Following this, Dr. Bessone and colleagues provide a detailed overview of the Latin American DILI registry outcomes. Next, Dr. Song and Dr. D´Albuquerque describe distinctive findings of acute liver failure secondary to yellow fever after the recent epidemic in Brazil. Dr. Paraná and Dr. Pujol discuss the unique presentation of hepatitis delta in the Amazonia. Next, Dr. Andraus delivers an impressive review of the actual barriers and limitations to access to liver transplantation in Latin America. Finally, to conclude this issue, Dr. Piñero and colleagues provide a comprehensive overview of the best models to predict HCC recurrence following liver transplantation.
We hope that these articles prove informative and provocative in their choice critically assessing the current state of the art and providing a glimpse of the actual trends of the hepatology management in Latin America.