Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Oct 21, 2018; 24(39): 4419-4427
Published online Oct 21, 2018. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v24.i39.4419
Portal vein thrombosis in cirrhotic patients - it is always the small pieces that make the big picture
Irina Gîrleanu, Anca Trifan, Carol Stanciu, Cătălin Sfarti
Irina Gîrleanu, Anca Trifan, Carol Stanciu, Cătălin Sfarti, Department of Gastroenterology, “Grigore T Popa” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Iași 700115, Romania
Irina Gîrleanu, Anca Trifan, Carol Stanciu, Cătălin Sfarti, Institute of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, “St. Spiridon” University Hospital, Iași 700115, Romania
Author contributions: Gîrleanu I, Stanciu C, Sfarti C and Trifan A conceived and design the editorial; Gîrleanu I and Sfarti C wrote and revised the manuscript; Trifan A and Stanciu C critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content and gave the final approval of the version to be published; all authors approved the final version of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Anca Trifan, MD, Doctor, Professor, Department of Gastroenterology, “Grigore T Popa” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 16 Universitatii St, Iași 700115, Romania. ancatrifan@yahoo.com
Telephone: +40-72-6108428 Fax: +40-23-2211820
Received: July 27, 2018
Peer-review started: July 28, 2018
First decision: August 27, 2018
Revised: September 2, 2018
Accepted: October 5, 2018
Article in press: October 5, 2018
Published online: October 21, 2018
Processing time: 83 Days and 0.5 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Portal vein thrombosis is a frequent and serious complication in patients with liver cirrhosis. The new classification needs to be validated and should contain the pattern of thrombus evolution and the status of liver cirrhosis- compensated or decompensated. The two main risk factors - reduced portal flow velocity and the hypercoagulable state should be addressed more extensively in large studies, considering the stage of liver disease. The anticoagulant treatment could be considered in cirrhotics with portal vein thrombosis. The end-points of the anticoagulant treatment should consider the recanalization, decompensation, and the mortality rates.