Cirrhosis historical perspective

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1] Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Sudarshana Datta, MD [2]

The first description of the clinical picture and pathologic appearance of cirrhosis, was published in 1761. René Laennec coined the term “cirrhosis” in 1819. The word “cirrhosis” was derived from the Greek term kirrhos, meaning “tawny” (to describe the orange-yellow or tan color of the diseased liver). In 1930, the first theory explaining the pathogenesis of cirrhosis was presented by Roessle and terms such as parenchymal degeneration, regeneration and scarring were mentioned.

• In 1761, the transformation of the liver in cirrhotic patients was identified by the first anatomic pathologist, Gianbattista Morgagni after conducting 500 autopsies.^[1]
• In 1819, René Laennec coined the term “cirrhosis“.^[2]
• The word “cirrhosis” was derived from the Greek term kirrhos, meaning “tawny” (to describe the orange-yellow or tan color of the diseased liver).^[1]
• In 1851, primary biliary cirrhosis was described by Addison and Gull at Guy’s Hospital Report, the title of the study being, “On a certain affectation of skin-vitiligoiedea-alpha plana-beta tuberosa”.

• In1892, Hanot reported a similar study on primary biliary cirrhosis which was titled “La cirrhosis hypertrophique avec ictere et chroniqe”.
• In 1930, the first theory explaining the pathogenesis of this disorder was presented by Roessle and terms such as parenchymal degeneration, regeneration and scarring were mentioned.
• In 1950, Ahrens et al. coined the term primary biliary cirrhosis.^[3]

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