Characteristics of liver cirrhosis in Italy: Evidence for a decreasing role of HCV aetiology

Compared to previous surveys performed in 1992 and in 2001, we observe a statistically significant (p < 0.05) decreasing role of both HCV infection and alcohol abuse as aetiologic agents of liver cirrhosis in Italy, explaining, at least in part, the slow, progressive decline of the mortality rate for liver cirrhosis in the last decades in this country (from 34.5 deaths/100,000 inhabitants in1980 to 10.8 in 2012).