It is generally agreed that cirrhosis is best defined
in morphological terms but, in spite of many attempts,
no single definition exists that does not
require further elaboration or qualification. At the
Fifth Pan-American Congress of Gastro-enterology,
the essential features were considered to be generalized
involvement of the liver by concurrent parenchymal
necrosis, regeneration and diffuse fibrosis
resulting in disorganization of the lobular architecture.
There are many who consider that the altered
vascular relationships are an equally or even more
important feature. In the publication 'Diseases of