Liver services

About

Our liver unit is based at St Mary’s Hospital, with weekly clinics located at Charing Cross, Hammersmith and St Charles hospitals.

The liver unit provides a range of services to treat the broad spectrum of conditions affecting the liver, including viral hepatitis, cirrhosis, alcohol related liver disease, liver cancer and fatty liver disease.

Our team of experienced liver consultants (hepatologists) see patients in both general and specialist liver clinics, as well as through inpatient care.

We offer the following specialist liver clinics:

• hepatitis B and C
• co-infection (HIV with hepatitis B and/or C) cirrhosis
• fatty liver disease
• alcohol related liver disease
• family clinic
• pregnancy and liver disease
• liver transplant service (in collaboration with the Royal Free Hospital)
• specialist liver cancer clinic

We offer a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach to treating our patients in the above clinics.

Our day unit at St Mary’s Hospital provides a day-case service for procedures such as liver biopsy, paracentesis, venesection and fibroscan assessment. We also perform hepatic encephalopathy testing (PHES, MRI) on patients with cirrhosis. These tests diagnose whether confusion or delirium in liver patients is caused as a result of their liver disease. If this is found to be the case we can use specific therapies to treat the condition.

Additional information

We have a strong national and international research profile with access to clinical trials for many of the conditions we treat.

The unit also provides teaching and supervision of post-graduate students, including PhD and MD, in conjunction with Imperial College London.

Elective placements are offered in the department, please contact Dr Shahid Khan, one of our consultant hepatologists, about potential requests for elective placements through the clinic.

Further online resources

• The British Liver Trust
• Love Your Liver
• Understanding hepatitis C and staying safe
• Living with hepatitis C and treatment options