CAUSES OF DECOMPENSATION IN HOSPITALIZED CIRRHOTIC PATIENTS

Introduction and Objectives

Decompensation of liver cirrhosis represents a turning point in the prognosis of cirrhotic patients presenting more complex medical needs that can lead to a prolonged hospital stay and a significant risk of in-hospital death. Likewise, mean survival decreases from 12 years for compensated cirrhosis to almost two years for decompensated cirrhosis. Apica BS et al. (2013) reported ascites as the most frequent cause of decompensation in 95.3% cases in the African population. On the other hand, the Colombian study of Sanchez (2016) conducted with the Latin population indicates as the leading cause of decompensation ascites (36.1%), variceal bleeding (28.4%). Unfortunately, in Mexico, we do not have data indicating the most frequent cause of decompensation in hospitalized patients. Therefore, knowing the frequency and most common causes of decompensation will direct prevention and timely treatment strategies. Objective: To determine the cause and prevalence of liver cirrhosis decompensation in patients admitted to the Hospital General de México.

Material and Methods

Observational, descriptive, retrospective study, Inpatients, hospitalized in the Gastroenterology Service of the General Hospital of Mexico "Dr. Eduardo Liceaga" with a diagnosis of liver cirrhosis, during the period from March 2019 to March 2021. The results were analyzed by descriptive statistics, frequency measures, and measures of central tendency (to obtain percentages, mean and average).

Results

We reviewed 454 records of patients diagnosed with liver cirrhosis with an average age of 59 years with a range of 18-75 years, predominantly male 59.25%. The most frequent etiology was alcohol in 44.71%, followed by non-alcoholic steatohepatitis 9.91%, autoimmune causes 7%, and viral (hepatitis B and C) 3.30%; however, up to 31.7% the etiology cannot be determined. According to the Child-Pugh classification, the predominant one was C up to 53.96%. The most frequent decompensation was gastrointestinal bleeding with 52.64%, of which 47.57% were of variceal origin, acute kidney injury with 50%, hepatic encephalopathy 46.03%, and ascites 40.96%. It should be noted that 15.19% presented acute on chronic hepatic failure, and 11.23% toxic-alcoholic hepatitis: less frequently hyponatremia 8.37%, spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) 7.92%, hepatorenal syndrome 1.98%, and hepatopulmonary syndrome 1.10%. See table 1.

Conclusions

In this study, the most frequent cause of decompensation was variceal bleeding, which differs from that reported in the literature in previous studies; however, this may be because the study population attends assessment in advanced stages of the disease and sometimes in the terminal phase to receive specialized care.

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.