Abstract
Background: Additional therapies for hepatic encephalopathy (HE) treatment are warranted. There are data evaluating the use of zinc for HE; however, clinical outcomes, specifically in the United States, are unknown. Objective: To compare 30-day and 1-year all-cause readmission rates in patients with cirrhosis complicated by HE on lactulose and rifaximin to those on lactulose, rifaximin, and zinc. Methods: This retrospective study included patients admitted with documented cirrhosis and home medications of lactulose and rifaximin, with or without zinc. Patients were stratified into 2 groups: those receiving lactulose and rifaximin for HE (control) and those receiving lactulose, rifaximin, and zinc for HE (treatment). The primary outcomes were 30-day and 1-year all-cause readmission rates. Results: One-hundred fifty-seven patients were included (102 in control group, 55 in treatment group). Regarding 30-day and 1-year all-cause readmission rates, there was no difference between the control and treatment groups. Conclusion and Relevance: This is the first study conducted in the United States evaluating zinc for HE treatment. Zinc did not impact 30-day or 1-year all-cause readmission rates. Further studies are warranted to evaluate the potential benefit of zinc for HE, possibly in correlation with Model for End-stage Liver Disease-Sodium (MELD-Na) scores.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 899-906 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Annals of Pharmacotherapy |
| Volume | 57 |
| Issue number | 8 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Aug 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© The Author(s) 2022.
Funding
The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The project described was supported by the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences through grant number UL1TR001998. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH. The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The project described was supported by the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences through grant number UL1TR001998. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| National Institutes of Health (NIH) | |
| National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) | UL1TR001998 |
Keywords
- cirrhosis
- hepatic encephalopathy
- lactulose
- readmission
- rifaximin
- zinc
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Pharmacology (medical)