Lamivudine improves short-term outcome in hepatitis B virus-related acute-on-chronic liver failure patients with a high model for end-stage liver disease score.

AIM: Hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) has significant morbidity and mortality. There is no standard approach for the management of HBV-related ACLF with nucleos(t)ide analogs. Our objective was to compare the short-term mortality between entecavir (ETV) and lamivudine (LAM) in patients with HBV-related ACLF.

METHODS

We recruited 311 inpatients with HBV-related ACLF from December 2002 to January 2015. The patients were treated with ETV (n=143) or LAM (n=168). The primary endpoint was mortality rate at week 8. Virological and biochemical responses were also studied.

RESULTS

By week 8, 53 (37.06%) patients in the ETV group and 57 (33.93%) patients in the LAM group died, and the two groups had similar mortality (P=0.414). Multivariate analysis showed that age, total bilirubin, international normalized ratio, and model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) score were independent factors for mortality at week 8. The best cut-off value of the MELD score was 24.5 for 8-week mortality. Twenty-nine of the 170 (17.06%) patients with MELD score less than 24.5 died at week 8, and the ETV and LAM groups had similar mortality (P=0.743). Eighty-one of the 141 (57.45%) patients with MELD score of at least 24.5 died at week 8 and the LAM group had lower mortality than the ETV group (P=0.018 at week 4; P=0.039 at week 8). Both groups showed similar virological and biochemical responses at 4 weeks.

CONCLUSION

LAM reduces the 8-week mortality rate significantly in patients with HBV-related ACLF who had MELD score of at least 24.5.