RESUMO
A total of 164 patients who had been admitted into our hospital with cirrhosis of the liver over the past five years were classified according to the origins of this particular disease based on the results of HBs antigen and HBs antibody tests.<BR>Exeessive alcohol consumption was largely responsible for the incidence of the scourge in men, while in women, unknown causes accounted for the majority of the cases.<BR>The cases in which HBs antigen tests were positive represented only 8.3% Although an overwhelming 53.8% of the consecutive HBs antigen positive cases were complicated hepatoma, the percentage of the complications as against the total was as low as 14.1%.<BR>Of those cases which can be blamed on alcoholism, very few developed into cancer. A malignant new growth in cases of NANB liver cirrhosis was a rarity.<BR>The early detection of hepatoma in the cases of HBs antigen positive liver cirrhosis and the early treatment of esophageal varices in the cases of alcohol-induced liver cirrhosis could lead to the improvmment of the prognosis.