Liver and biliary diseases constitute major causes of morbidity and mortality in the United States. Together, chronic liver disease and cirrhosis (International Statistical Classifica-tion of Diseases, Tenth Revision codes K70 and K73 to K74) rank as the 12th leading cause of death, accounting for at least 27,000 deaths yearly (1). However, because the major cancers of the liver and biliary system are largely the long-term result of chronic liver or biliary diseases, deaths from malignancies often are included in estimates of total mortality. The combined mortality of patients with acute and chronic liver disease and liver cancer places liver disease among the leading 10 causes of death in the United States, accounting for approximately 48,000 deaths in 2003 (1).
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