Portal hypertension care at Mayo Clinic
Your Mayo Clinic care team
At Mayo Clinic, a multidisciplinary team of specialists work together to evaluate and treat each individual. With 13 specialty groups and more than 140 digestive disease specialists on staff, the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Mayo Clinic is one of the largest and most experienced in the world.
Advanced diagnosis and treatment
At Mayo Clinic you have access to advanced tests and imaging tools that aren't widely available at other medical centers in the U.S. These tools give your care team clearer, more detailed information, so they can find answers faster and more accurately. Examples include magnetic resonance elastography (MRE), contrast-enhanced ultrasound, and advanced blood, urine and genetic tests.
Accurate diagnosis and staging of cirrhosis, the cause of most portal hypertension, are essential for guiding treatment and prognosis. Mayo Clinic researchers pioneered magnetic resonance elastography (MRE), a noninvasive imaging test that maps liver stiffness to assess fibrosis and cirrhosis. This advanced technology allows liver disease to be detected and staged earlier and often can reduce or even eliminate the need for liver biopsy.
Expertise and rankings
Experience
Mayo Clinic doctors have expertise and experience in evaluating and caring for people who have portal hypertension. They also see many people with cirrhosis, the main cause of portal hypertension. Every year, nearly 8,000 people are treated at Mayo Clinic for cirrhosis. If a liver transplant is necessary, all Mayo campuses have transplant centers. Mayo surgeons have performed thousands of liver transplants, and the Mayo Clinic Liver Transplant Program has one of the best long-term survival rates in the country.
Pioneers in research
In recent years, Mayo Clinic researchers discovered that deposits of fibrin — microvascular blood clots — contribute to portal hypertension, and inflammatory cells known as neutrophils contribute to the formation of fibrin. The researchers were the first to identify neutrophils as significant drivers of portal hypertension. This understanding is likely to help researchers study and identify new treatments. In addition, Mayo Clinic research led to technology that can diagnose cirrhosis accurately. And Mayo Clinic researchers developed the model for end-stage liver disease (MELD). The MELD scoring system is now used nationwide to assess people's disease progression and allocate organs for transplant.
Nationally recognized expertise
Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, has been recognized as the best gastroenterology and GI surgery hospital in the nation by U.S. News & World Report in every year since 1990 when the rankings were first established.
Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, ranks No. 1 for digestive disorders in the U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals rankings. Mayo Clinic in Phoenix/Scottsdale, Arizona, and Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, are ranked among the Best Hospitals for digestive disorders by U.S. News & World Report. Mayo Clinic Children's in Rochester is ranked the No. 1 hospital in Minnesota and the five-state region of Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin, according to U.S. News & World Report's 2025–2026 "Best Children's Hospitals" rankings.