Institute of Hepatology
- Treatment of all types of liver and biliary tract diseases
- Treatment of viral hepatitis B, C, D
- Drug-induced, alcoholic, and autoimmune hepatitis
- Treatment of patients with liver cirrhosis
- Wilson's disease, cystic fibrosis, Gaucher's disease
The central focus of the hepatology department is the diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis as the leading cause of liver cirrhosis and cancer. Typically, these patients are asymptomatic and are detected during routine examinations through elevated liver enzyme levels in the blood. From this point, the hepatologist's main task is to determine the type of hepatitis: viral, drug-induced, alcoholic, or autoimmune. The diagnostic protocol for establishing an accurate diagnosis includes three-phase liver CT, Doppler of the portal vein, hepatological blood panel, and in certain cases, a histological diagnosis cannot be avoided, meaning a liver biopsy must be performed.
In the hepatology department, under the leadership of department head E. Zuckerman, up to 10 liver biopsies are performed daily on patients with diagnosed hepatitis B and C. Only histological diagnosis can correctly identify a candidate for treatment and determine the precise type of therapy the patient needs. The vital importance of such examination and treatment becomes clear when one considers the rate of liver cirrhosis development in patients with chronic viral hepatitis.
It reaches nearly 100% over ten to fifteen years, after which patients begin their "ordeal" in hospitals with endless bleeding from varicose veins of the esophagus and rectum, abdominal enlargement due to edema, and eventually hepatic coma, when liver transplantation becomes unavoidable. Proper drug therapy for patients with cirrhosis delays liver transplantation by decades.
