Hepatology · Boao Lecheng cluster
Liver Cirrhosis and Fibrosis Treatment in China, Hainan
Liver tests swing, the ultrasound says "diffuse changes", elastography shows F3–F4, and the advice ends at "watch and don't drink". The Boao Lecheng cluster on Hainan has a cell programme for cirrhosis, but not everyone is a candidate, and with bleeding or growing ascites you must not fly. The first step is free: Dr Yang reads your records and says in writing whether flying makes sense. "You do not need to come" is an answer too.
About the condition
Before you think about travelling
Some situations rule out travel, and they come first. Vomiting blood or black stool, confusion and drowsiness, an abdomen swelling by the day, fever with abdominal pain, sharply deepening jaundice — that is an ambulance and a hospital near home, not a flight. Stabilise first, talk about a trip afterwards.
If your condition is stable, everything below is for you. In fibrosis, time works quietly: while the cause remains — virus, alcohol, excess weight with high sugar — the scar keeps growing, and formed scar never fully reverses; no additional method gives lost years back. Whether there are any grounds at all can be seen from your records without going anywhere: Dr Yang reads them, free of charge.
Why people come
The situations we see most often
If one of these is yours, it is worth establishing the stage and the options.
- Told "F4, keep watching"
Elastography showed cirrhosis, the hepatologist set a check every six months, and nobody explained what can be done beyond waiting.
- Virus suppressed, liver not
Hepatitis B or C is treated and the bloods are normal, but liver stiffness is not falling, and no one says whether it is reversible.
- Tests swing, no cause found
Enzymes rise and fall, the ultrasound says "diffuse changes", viruses and alcohol are excluded — and the diagnosis still has not been put together.
- The ascites went, the fear stayed
One decompensation already, diuretics hold it, and what comes next — wait for a transplant, or something else — nobody has answered.
- Stopped drinking — need a baseline
Alcohol is out; now you need to know how damaged the liver is, what is reversible, and which numbers to track progress by.
Standard care first
What is normally done before anything else
We do not propose replacing proven treatment. On the contrary: without it, any next step loses its meaning.
Standard therapy comes first — and in fibrosis it decides more than any additional method. What should already be done at home:
- The cause is removed — antivirals for hepatitis B and C, complete abstinence from alcohol, weight loss and sugar control in steatohepatitis. Without this, no other method makes sense.
- The stage is measured, not guessed — elastography and blood-based fibrosis scores, a biopsy where the cause is unclear. "Diffuse changes" on an ultrasound report is not a stage.
- Complications are looked for in advance — gastroscopy for oesophageal varices, ultrasound every six months for liver cancer, Child-Pugh and MELD scores. Routine practice, not over-caution.
- Bleeding, ascites and encephalopathy are prevented — beta-blockers for varices, salt restriction and diuretics, lactulose. All of these drug classes are available and prescribed at home.
- Transplantation is discussed in time — with a high MELD score, the waiting-list question goes to your hepatologist at home, without delay. We do not arrange liver transplants, and no cell programme replaces one.
Cellular approaches do not replace this path. If the cause is gone and the liver is not recovering, or there has already been a decompensation — send your records: Dr Yang will say whether anything further is worth considering.
Where a programme begins
No programme starts without a work-up
Diagnostics come first: they decide whether the method is indicated in your case and to what extent. From here there are two possible next steps.
The regenerative approach
What the cluster additionally considers
On medical grounds — as an addition to standard care, never instead of it.
- Diagnosis first, method second
One trip gathers what takes months at home: elastography, full biochemistry with albumin and clotting, markers of viral and autoimmune causes, ultrasound and CT where needed, gastroscopy on the physician's decision. The result is a stage on a scale, not "diffuse changes", and an answer to the main question: was the cause really removed, or never found. For some people this is where the approach changes — steatohepatitis turns up on top of a treated hepatitis, and that is what now needs treating.
- What exists for your diagnosis, and what does not
Decompensated cirrhosis is on the list of indications for which the zone's regulator permits cellular technologies. The programme is considered only on a physician's decision after an in-person assessment, and not everyone is a candidate: it needs a stable condition without acute complications and a cause already removed. Compare not with the rest of China but with what you can get at home: antivirals, diuretics and bleeding prophylaxis are prescribed in your own city, and there is no reason to fly for them. No one here promises a liver transplant, and cells do not replace one.
- How the result is measured
Not by how you feel: albumin, bilirubin, clotting, platelets, liver stiffness and the Child-Pugh and MELD scores — before the programme and at checkpoints written into the discharge summary. The realistic aim is to hold compensation and slow the scar; no method promises to reverse cirrhosis. If you have been told there is no treatment, we do not promise that we have one. Sometimes the records show a trip would give nothing but lost time and money. We will say so plainly.
Methods
Which directions may be considered
What suits your case is determined by a physician after diagnostics.
Diagnostics built around your diagnosis
4 days and 3 nights, around 150 parameters: liver biochemistry, hepatitis markers, clotting, abdominal ultrasound. In fibrosis, elastography and gastroscopy are added separately.
Cellular technologies in the cluster
What the pilot zone permits, how a technology is admitted to use, and why in cirrhosis the decision stays with the physician. Price reference points are on the Pricing page.
Traditional Chinese medicine
Led by Master Zhi Ning. In cirrhosis the remit is narrow: sleep, appetite, weakness. Herbal formulas only with the knowledge of the physician who sees your liver tests: for a damaged liver they are pharmacology.
Plainly about the limits
When the regenerative route is not for you
This matters more than any marketing: knowing in advance when the method is not considered.
There are situations where our answer is: you do not need to come. In cirrhosis there are more of them than in most diagnoses. The main ones:
- Acute decompensation right now — bleeding, growing ascites, confusion, infection, deepening jaundice. That is a hospital near home: a long flight in this state is dangerous, and a cell programme does not treat an acute complication.
- The cause has not been removed — an active virus without therapy, continued drinking, uncontrolled sugar. That comes first, with a hepatologist where you live: otherwise the liver is destroyed faster than any result of a trip could show.
- You are on a transplant list, or qualify for one — with a high MELD score the list outweighs any trip: cells do not replace a transplant, and time in the queue must not be lost.
- Expecting cirrhosis to be reversed — no technology turns formed scar back into healthy liver; if someone promises that, it is a reason for caution, not for buying a ticket.
If the cluster physician says there is no reason to come and the approach can be set at home, we pass that on as it stands. The review is free — and a refusal is a result too. We do not sell a method — we organise access to a physician's decision. Send your records · Write on WhatsApp
How it works
From your records to coming home
- 11. You send your records
By WhatsApp or through the form. Phone photographs are fine, a complete file is not needed; with no documents at all, just describe the situation. Dr Yang reads the records (other languages are translated first) and answers in writing. Free.
- 22. The answer: is there any point in coming
Usually within one or two working days. No diagnosis is made online: the answer is whether there are grounds to come; the approach is set by the physician who sees you in person.
- 33. Arrival
Fly into Sanya, then a road transfer to the cluster, which we arrange. The coordinator meets you at the airport and interprets at appointments. Hainan's own 30-day visa-free entry covers many passports; whether it covers yours is checked before booking.
- 44. Diagnostics and the physician's decision
Elastography, laboratory tests, ultrasound, gastroscopy where indicated, a hepatologist's consultation. Only after this does the physician decide on a cell programme — and a refusal here is as much a physician's result as a go-ahead.
- 55. Going home
You leave with a discharge summary, a regimen and checkpoints for a hepatologist at home to work from. Complications after you return are managed by physicians where you live: neither we nor the cluster hospital can help at a distance, and that has to be accepted before the trip.
Why here
What the Boao Lecheng cluster offers
- Dr Yang reads Russian in the original
A partner physician of the cluster, medically trained in Russia. Russian-language records he reads in the original, nothing lost in translation; other languages are translated before the review. He is the one you write to.
- The answer comes before the ticket
If there are grounds, the written answer names the programme and the cluster hospital. If what you need is not in the zone, you learn that before you buy a ticket.
- You pay the hospital directly
The hospital issues the bill and you pay its price — no mark-up on medicine. We earn on coordination: a separate line in the estimate, which you see in advance.
- A pilot zone with its own rules
We are not a clinic and we do not treat. The cluster's state hospitals treat — they hold the licences and the responsibility; we answer for the organisation and for making sure you are properly understood. The zone's status makes legal drugs and technologies not registered elsewhere in China.
Common questions
The essentials
Send your scans — and get a straight answer
A specialist physician in the cluster will look at your stage and say whether the regenerative route is worth considering. The review is free; we do not diagnose online.