| Summary: | Liver fibrosis is a disease that affects patients with hepatitis B virus or hepatitis C virus, harmful
alcohol consumption levels, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. It is important to assess the
cause, disease severity, and prognosis at the time of presentation to determine suitable treatment.
The aim of this review article is to outline the recent advances in the diagnosis, management, and
treatment of liver fibrosis. A PubMed review was performed encompassing the years 1982–2019
using the following search terms: ‘liver fibrosis’, ‘hepatitis C virus’, ‘hepatitis B virus’, ‘non-alcoholic
fatty liver disease’, and ‘alcoholic liver disease’. Results showed that the cornerstone therapy for
liver fibrosis is to remove the offending agent and treat the underlying disease. The gold standard
method of diagnosis is liver biopsy; however, this procedure is invasive and thus multiple laboratory
and radiologic tests are used to help determine the degree of fibrosis. There are few pharmacological
agents known to treat fibrosis and they are disease specific. For example, the only proven therapy for
fibrosis improvement in alcoholic liver disease is abstinence. The authors concluded that liver fibrosis
carries a high morbidity and mortality risk with few therapeutic options depending on the cause
and degree of fibrosis. Larger multicentre prospective studies are needed to examine effective
agents to prevent, stop, or reduce fibrosis.
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