Journal of palliative medicine
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Introduction: Patients with cirrhosis have a decreased quality of life due to decompensations of their underlying disease. While liver transplantation (LT) has improved outcomes and quality of life for patients with cirrhosis, many patients die or are delisted before transplant. Despite high morbidity and mortality, palliative care (PC) services are underutilized for patients with cirrhosis. ⋯ Discussion: This study shows many LT centers do not engage their patients in advance directive discussions and highlights the underutilization of PC services in the LT evaluation process. Our results also show minimal advancement in the collaboration between PC and transplant hepatology over the last decade. Encouraging or requiring LT centers to hold advance directive discussions and incorporate PC providers into the transplant team is a recommended area for improvement.