• Pepijn D Weeder, Robert J Porte, and Ton Lisman.
• Section of Hepatobiliary Surgery and Liver Transplantation, Department of Surgery, University of Groningen, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands; Surgical Research Laboratory, Department of Surgery, University of Groningen, University Medical Centre Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands. Electronic address: p.d.weeder@umcg.nl.
• Transfus Med Rev. 2014 Jul 1;28(3):107-13.

AbstractThe hemostatic profile of patients with liver diseases is frequently profoundly different from that of healthy individuals. These complex alterations lead to abnormal results from routine laboratory tests, but because of the nature of these assays, they fail to accurately represent the patient's hemostatic state. Nevertheless, based on abnormal laboratory coagulation values, it has long been assumed that patients with liver disease have a natural bleeding tendency and are protected from thrombosis. This assumption is false; the average patient with liver disease is actually in a state of "rebalanced hemostasis" that can relatively easily be tipped toward both bleeding and thrombosis. The new paradigm of rebalanced hemostasis has strong implications for the clinic, which are presented in this review. There is no evidence that prophylactic transfusion of plasma helps to prevent procedure-related bleeding. In addition, the presence of independent risk factors such as poor kidney status or infections should be carefully assessed before invasive procedures. Furthermore, central venous pressure plays an important role in the risk of bleeding in patients with liver diseases, so during procedures, a restrictive infusion policy should be applied. Finally, thrombosis prophylaxis should not be withheld from patients with cirrhosis or acute liver failure, and clinicians should be alert to the possibility of thrombosis occurring in these patients.Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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