Situational panorama of chronic liver diseases: A single-center experience at a university hospital in northeast Mexico (1995-2019).

Introduction and objectives: Chronic liver disease (CLD) is characterized by a progressive decline in liver function, accompanied by inflammation, destruction, and scarring of the hepatic parenchyma. The most common etiologies of CLD globally include hepatitis B (HBV), hepatitis C (HCV), alcohol-related liver disease, autoimmune liver disease, and, more recently, metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD). The aim was to analyze the main etiologies of CLD observed in a Hepatology Center over a 25-year period.

Materials and methods: A retrospective and observational study was conducted with 2679 patients with CLD, recruited between January 1995 and December 2019. The patients were classified into three time periods: Group A (1995-2003), Group B (2004-2011), and Group C (2012-2019). A one-way analysis of variance was used to assess the differences between the groups.

Results: Significant differences were found in HCV, HBV, and MASLD between the analyzed periods (p = 0.0019, p < 0.001, and p < 0.001, respectively). Tukey's post hoc test revealed significant differences in HCV and HBV between group A and groups B and C (p < 0.01 and p < 0.001, respectively). For MASLD, a progressive increase was observed in each period (p < 0.01 for A vs. B; p ≤ 0.001 for A vs. C; p = 0.0042 for B vs. C).

Conclusions: Between 1995 and 2007, the predominant CLD in our clinic was caused by HCV. However, since 2008, MASLD has become the most frequent etiology (33 %), reaching 45 % in 2019 as the leading cause of CLD. By 2012, cirrhosis due to MASLD had the highest incidence among the analyzed etiologies, followed by HCV.