Abstract
End-stage liver disease or cirrhotic patients frequently require admission to an intensive care unit for the treatment of organ failure. Mechanical ventilation, which is frequently required, is consistently associated with a significantly increased rate of in-hospital mortality. Despite a lack of research focused on the cirrhotic population, there is a growing body of evidence from the general ICU or perioperative population showing that appropriate management of ventilatory support is associated with improved outcomes. Moreover, synergistic ventilatory strategies from the preoperative ICU period to the intraoperative and then the postoperative period may be an important pathway for further improvements in the outcomes of these patients.