What are the principal histologic features of cirrhosis?

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The main idea is that cirrhosis reconfigures the liver’s architecture through scar tissue and regenerating nodules. In cirrhosis, you see nodular regenerative architecture—clusters of hepatocytes that have regrown into nodules—surrounded by thick bands of fibrous tissue. These fibrous bands form bridging septa that connect portal tracts to central veins, distorting the normal lobular layout of the liver. This combination of regenerative nodules and extensive bridging fibrosis is the histologic hallmark of advanced cirrhosis.

This contrasts with diffuse steatosis, which is fat accumulation without the fibrotic nodular remodeling; inflammation without fibrosis indicates active hepatitis without the structural scarring characteristic of cirrhosis; and normal architecture would mean no cirrhosis at all.