Gastroenterology - Royal Colleges of Physicians of Edinburgh (RCPE) Symposium Edinburgh

Like many areas of medicine, gastroenterological management continues to evolve. This symposium addresses some important areas of disease management which is being informed by new evidence (such as alcoholic hepatitis and acute severe colitis). The gut microbiome is an emerging and rapidly expanding area of research endeavour that seems likely to impact not only on gut and liver health and disease but on many other parts of the human body so it is appropriate to review this. A major public health problem, hepatitis C, is reviewed with respect to challenges of identifying and treating asymptomatic cases. While there are now highly effective treatments, there is a debate to be had balancing affordability with the risks and expense of managing advanced liver disease in the future. This leads onto the issues of the need for palliative treatment in advanced liver disease: recognition of the palliative needs of end stage liver disease patients and how this sits with being on a liver transplant list.