Efficacy of long-term albumin therapy in the treatment of decompensated cirrhosis.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Decompensated liver cirrhosis has a poor prognosis, with a median overall survival of two to four years, which is worse than for many oncological disorders. These patients are highly susceptible to infections due to increased systemic inflammation leading to kidney failure and death. The aim was to study the efficacy of albumin in reducing episodes of decompensation, preventing bacterial infection, kidney dysfunction and mortality.

METHOD: Study involved patients with Child B or C cirrhosis with an albumin level below 3.0 g/dL, who were administered 20% human albumin weekly with standard medical treatment (SMT) for three months or till serum albumin levels were 4.0 g/dL (whichever is earlier) and compared with age and sex-matched controls who received only SMT. The primary end-point was six-month mortality and the secondary end-points were reduction in infections, kidney dysfunction, ascites recurrence, hepatic encephalopathy (HE), gastrointestinal (GI) bleed and complications of cirrhosis.

RESULTS

From September 2021 to January 2023, 88 cases and 86 controls were taken and followed up for six months. Overall, six-month survival was not statistically significant between groups (95.1% vs. 91.9%; p = 0·330). The incidence of recurrence of ascites (34.09% vs. 59.3%, p < 0.001), kidney dysfunction (6.8% vs. 24.4%, p < 0.001), HE (15.9% vs, 37.2%, p = 0.015), spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) (3.4% vs 17.4%, p = 0.002) and non-SBP infections (7.9% vs. 18.6%, p = 0.038) were significantly less in cases as compared with controls; however, GI bleed (14.8% vs. 17.4%, p = 0.632) was not statistically significant.

CONCLUSION

Long-term human albumin acts as a disease-modifying treatment in patients with decompensated cirrhosis.