National Consensus on Portal Hypertension Management in Indonesia

Portal hypertension is a clinical syndrome that consists of hypersplenism, ascites, gastroesophageal varices, and encephalopathy. This condition is marked by increased portal pressure gradient and may occur with or without liver cirrhosis. To date, portal hypertension remains as the leading cause of severe complications and death of a patient with chronic liver disease, especially liver cirrhosis. Therefore, thorough understanding about management of portal hypertension is strongly required, especially considering that many complications of portal hypertension require early diagnosis and treatment to improve the prognosis of the patients. Additionally, although hepatic venous pressure gradient (HVPG) measurement has become a gold standard procedure for measuring portal pressure in the last twenty years, utilization of this method in Indonesia has been hindered by reluctance of the patients due to its invasiveness, high cost, and limited availability. This consensus is developed with evidence-based medicine principles to provide a guideline for portal hypertension management for general practitioners, specialists, and consultants, to achieve better clinical outcomes of portal hypertension in Indonesia.  Keywords: portal hypertension, liver cirrhosis, chronic liver disease.