Emphasis on antifibrotic therapy for chronic hepatitis

The final outcome of all kinds of chronic hepatitis (including chronic hepatitis B, chronic hepatitis C, alcoholic hepatitis, and drug hepatitis) lesions is cirrhosis and primary liver cancer. Liver fibrosis is a necessary pathological process for chronic liver disease to develop into cirrhosis, and any factors that can prevent and/or delay the occurrence of liver fibrosis can delay the occurrence of cirrhosis and primary liver cancer. The late Hans Popper, a famous liver disease expert in the United States, once pointed out that “whoever can prevent the occurrence of liver fibrosis will be able to cure most of the liver diseases”, that is to say, he pointed out the importance of anti-hepatic fibrosis, and it has been proved that the early stage of hepatic fibrosis can be reversed through experimental research. Modern evidence-based medicine confirms that patients with chronic liver disease can greatly reduce the risk of cirrhosis and primary liver cancer with anti-hepatic fibrosis treatment. There is still a lack of ideal drugs and methods for the treatment of cirrhosis by western medicine, and the current treatment mainly focuses on the etiology of the disease, including antiviral and anti-hepatic fibrosis treatments. However, the main problems exist in the current antiviral treatment: the current antiviral drugs nucleoside (acid) drugs can only inhibit viral replication, but can not clear the virus to achieve the effect of curing chronic hepatitis, long-term treatment has the risk of drug resistance; limitations of the indications. At present, only 1/3-1/4 of the 120 million chronic hepatitis B virus-infected patients in China are eligible for antiviral treatment, and another 2/3-3/4 of the patients (about 80-90 million people) cannot be treated with antiviral therapy, and if this part of the patients are not treated, a considerable portion of them will be developed into cirrhosis and / or primary liver cancer. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is a hotspot in the research of anti-hepatic fibrosis treatment, and many studies at home and abroad have confirmed that TCM has better efficacy in anti-hepatic fibrosis, with fewer adverse effects and relatively lower cost.