NUMBER OF PATIENTS HAVING AN INDICATION FOR LIVER TRANSPLANTATION IN GUNMA PREFECTURE

This study was designed to assess the need for liver transplantation in Gunma prefecture. To estimate the number of patients who died of end-stage liver disease, we investigated the Gunma version of vital statisitics in Japan from 1985 to 1990. The following result were obtained : Twenty six patients per year died of diseases that were absolute indications for liver transplantation ; these included alcoholic cirrhosis (8.2 persons on average), primary biliary cirrhosis (1.6), congenital biliary atresia (1.2) and acute hepatic failure (15.2). Three hundred and ninety patients per year died of disease that might have responded relatively well to liver transplantation ; these included viral related liver cirrhosis (228) and hepatic malignant neoplasm (162). In Gunma prefecture, the annual number of patients with an absolute indication for liver transplantation was 26 while those with a relative indication for liver transplantation numbered 390.