FREQUENCY OF HEPATOCELLULAR CARCINOMA IN LIVER CIRRHOSIS PATIENTS

Background: Hepatocellular Carcinoma is one of the sequelae of liver cirrhosis. 
Objective: To determine the frequency of hepatocellular carcinoma in liver cirrhosis patients.
st Methodology: This was a cross sectional study, conducted at Sheikh Zayed Hospital, Rhim Yar Khan from 1 July to 
st 31 December 2017. In this study, cases of liver cirrhosis of either sex with age range of 40 to 80 years were selected. A
total of study subjects were included in this study. The diagnosis of liver cirrhosis was made on the basis of shrunken 
liver size, with or without associated portal vein dilatation and ascites. The child pugh class was assessed by detailed 
clinical examination, USG and liver function tests. Hepatocellular carcinoma was labelled as yes where there was 
mass lesion on USG in liver with alpha fetoprotein level more than 200ng/ml. Data was analyzed by using SPSS 
version 20.
Results: In this study, 100 cases of liver cirrhosis were enrolled with mean age of 53.79±11.04 years. There were 58 
(58%) males and 42 (42%) females. HCC was seen in 8 (8%) out of 100 cases. HCC was significantly high in males 
where it was seen in 6 (10.34%) of cases with p= 0.03. It was also significantly high in cases with age more than 50 
years where it was observed in 5 (10.87%) with p= 0.06. In terms of child pugh class it was also significantly high in 
cases with class C, where all the 8 cases were seen with p= 0.001.
Conclusion: Hepatocellular Carcinoma is not that uncommon and is found significantly high in males and those with Child Pug Class C.