ABSTRACT
The aim of this study is to determine the survival and the principal causes of death in our cirrhotic patients in whom the B and C viral infection represented the principal causes. It's a retrospective studs that includes 114 cirrhotic patients hospitalized between 2000 and 2005 in the department of hepato-gastro-enterology of sahloul. The mean age was of 53 years with extremes of 15 to 85 years; 65 were men 57%] and 49 were women [43%]. After a follow-up of 29, 4 months, 51 patients died [44, 7%]. The causes of death were hepatocellular carcinoma in 19 cases [16, 7%], hepatorenal syndrome in 17 cases [14, 9%], hepatic encephalopathy in 12 cases [10, 5%], infection of ascitis in I case and upper digestive hemorrhage in 2 cases [1, 8%]. The global survival of patients was 66%for 2 years and 47%for 5 years. The survival for 5 years of viral B cirrhosis was 34%, but it was 51%in non B viral cirrhosis but the difference was not statistically significant [p=0, 6]. The cirrhotic patients have a premature mortality in comparison to the general population. The hepatocellular carcinoma remains one of the principal causes of death, where the interest of early screening for degeneration