The Methodist Hospital System. Leading Medicine
The Methodist Hospital System. Leading Medicine

Methodist Center for Liver Disease & Transplantation

 

The “MELD” score is a disease severity scoring system for adults with liver disease. The higher the MELD score, the sicker the patient is. The graph above shows that from 2007 to 2008, the Methodist Center for Liver Disease and Transplantation served sicker (high acuity) patients and had improved survival rates. It also shows that the length of stay in the hospital dropped from 21 days to 17 days. That is important because decreasing the length of stay also decreases the likelihood of patients suffering a fall in the hospital or obtaining a hospital acquired illness. In other words, decreasing the length of stay increases patient safety.
  
 

The graph above shows the increase of both liver patient referrals and evaluations. This is significant because it demonstrates that the Methodist Center for Liver Disease and Transplantation is reaching out to an increasing number of liver patients with life-saving care.

The following are the latest statistics available from the National Center for Health Statistics, the American Liver Foundation, and the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS):

  • Over 26,000 people in the US die each year from chronic liver disease and cirrhosis.
  • Cirrhosis, a chronic liver disease, is the seventh leading disease-related cause of death in the US.
  • Seventy-five to 80 percent of cases of cirrhosis could be prevented by eliminating alcohol abuse.
  • Approximately 3.9 million people in the US are chronically infected with the hepatitis C virus.
  • Between 8,000 and 10,000 people die of hepatitis C annually in the US. By the year 2010, the number of deaths from hepatitis C is expected to rise to 38,000 each year.
  • Hepatitis B kills 5,000 people in the US annually.
  • One in every 250 persons is a carrier of the hepatitis B virus.
  • More than 80,000 people are newly infected with hepatitis B each year in the US.
  • Chronic hepatitis B infection increases a person's chance of developing liver cancer by 100 times.
  • There are approximately 22,000 pregnant women who are carriers of hepatitis B each year in the US.
  • Each year, more than 500,000 surgeries to remove the gallbladder are performed in the US.
  • As of December, 2001, 18,744 adults and children were waiting for a liver transplant in the US.