Severe Liver Disease Department

The Department of Severe Liver Disease of Beijing Friendship Hospital was established in 2022. The department comprises the Severe Liver Disease Intensive Care Unit (LICU) and the general ward for severe liver disease, and is part of the Liver Disease Center of Friendship Hospital and the National Clinical Research Center for Digestive System Diseases. The establishment of the Department of Severe Liver Disease has made the diagnosis and treatment of liver diseases at Friendship Hospital more comprehensive and has promoted improvements in the level of diagnosis and treatment of critically ill patients with digestive system diseases.

Patients treated by the Department of Severe Liver Disease include those with acute liver failure and acute-on-chronic liver failure caused by various etiologies, as well as severe complications of end-stage liver disease and the resulting organ failure, including hepatopulmonary syndrome, portopulmonary hypertension, hepatorenal syndrome, hepatic encephalopathy, and acute metabolic crises of inherited metabolic liver diseases. At the same time, the diagnosis and treatment of complications in difficult and critically ill liver-transplant patients are also at a leading level in China, including post-transplant rejection, severe post-transplant infections, post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease (PTLD), and recurrence of the primary disease. It serves as a national clinical-pathological consultation platform for difficult cases after liver transplantation, bringing hope to many patients with difficult and critical liver diseases.

In clinical practice, the Department of Severe Liver Disease carries out a series of clinical diagnostic and therapeutic techniques for adults, children, and infants and young children, including artificial liver therapy, blood purification therapy, hemodynamic monitoring of critically ill patients (Swan-Ganz right-heart floating catheter, PiCCO continuous cardiac output monitoring), ECMO extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support therapy (VA-ECMO, VV-ECMO), and more.

Professor Sun Liying, the academic leader of the discipline, has long been engaged in the diagnosis and treatment of critically ill patients with complex conditions, particularly the treatment of critically ill patients with severe liver disease and liver transplantation. She has successively served as a member of the International Liver Transplantation Society Anesthesia/Critical Care Committee (ILTS Anesthesia/Critical Care Committee), a member of the International Liver Transplantation Society Acute Liver Failure Special Interest Group (ILTS The Acute Liver Failure Special Interest Group), a member of the International Liver Transplantation Society Infection Diseases and Liver Transplantation Special Interest Group (ILTS The Infection Diseases and Liver Transplantation SIG), a standing committee member of the Organ Transplantation Rehabilitation Professional Committee of the Chinese Association of Rehabilitation Medicine, deputy chair of the Transplant Management Professional Committee of the Organ Transplantation Branch of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, and a member of the Hepatology Professional Committee of the Gastroenterology Physicians Branch of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, among other academic appointments. In 2021, she was honored by the International Liver Transplantation Society (ILTS) as one of the 3 women who had made outstanding contributions to the field of liver transplantation. She has published more than 130 papers as first author and corresponding author and has contributed to 13 books; as a principal contributor, she received one Second Prize of the Chinese Medical Science and Technology Award, and as the second principal contributor, she received one Second Prize in the Science and Technology Progress category of the Beijing Science and Technology Award.