Department of Gastroenterology & Hepatology, Changi General Hospital, Singapore. Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore. Department of Medicine, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore. Department of Gastroenterology & Hepatology, Changi General Hospital, Singapore; Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore; Duke-NUS Academic Medicine Programme, Singhealth, Singapore. Electronic address: Eugene.wong.y.j@singhealth.com.sg.
Digestive and liver disease : official journal of the Italian Society of Gastroenterology and the Italian Association for the Study of the Liver. 2021
BACKGROUND AND AIMS The efficacy and safety of albumin infusion for treatment and prevention of overt hepatic encephalopathy (OHE) among cirrhosis patients remained controversial. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the benefit of albumin infusion for the treatment and prevention of OHE. METHODS We performed a systematic search of 4 electronic databases up to 31st January 2021.
The primary outcome was the resolution of OHE. Secondary outcomes were inpatient mortality and albumin-associated adverse events. We assessed the pooled odds' risk, pooled mean differences, 95% confidence interval and heterogeneity using Review Manager Version 5.3. RESULTS A total of 12 studies (2,087 subjects) were identified. Among cirrhosis patients with OHE, albumin infusion was associated with a lower pooled risk of OHE (OR=0.43, 95%CI: 0.27, 0.68; I(2)=0%). Among patients without baseline OHE, albumin infusion was associated with a lower pooled risk of developing OHE (OR=0.53, 95%CI: 0.32, 0.86; I(2)=62%). Albumin infusion was associated with a lower pooled risk of inpatient mortality (OR=0.36, 95%CI: 0.21, 0.60; I(2)=0%). CONCLUSION Well-powered randomized trials are required to confirm the benefits of albumin infusion for the prevention and treatment of overt hepatic encephalopathy among decompensated cirrhosis patients.
