Portal Hypertension

Edward Wolfgang Lee, MD, PhD

Liver diseases including portal hypertension are often chronic and are associated with high mortality and morbidities. Although significant improvement has been made in diagnosis and therapies for liver diseases, the consequences of end-stage liver disease and severe portal hypertension are clinically challenging and devastating to patients and their family and are the huge economic burden to our society. Improvement in medical therapies for liver diseases such as ledipasvir/sofosbuvir and advancement in surgical techniques have made some impact on outcomes for these patients with liver diseases. However, the utilization of advanced diagnostic imaging and contemporary and minimally invasive interventional procedures has resulted in enormous contribution and promising outcomes to patients who are not eligible for surgical treatment or failed medical treatments.

This special issue of Digestive Disease Intervention focused on some of these currently existing and novel interventional procedures for the treatment of sequelae of severe portal hypertension. We have a collection of up-to-date and evidence-based reviews authored by world authorities in the field of treatment of portal hypertension. Hopefully, this issue can provide us with invaluable knowledge and insights in the treatment of a very clinically challenging conundrum, chronic liver diseases, and portal hypertension.