Is pentoxifylline effective in alcoholic hepatitis? –First update.

ABOUT THE UPDATE: This article updates the June 2014 Living FRISBEE (Living FRISBEE: Living FRIendly Summary of the Body of Evidence using Epistemonikos). It incorporates a new systematic review identifying one study not included in previous reviews. The new evidence leads to substantial changes in the existing evidence.

ASBTRACT: Pentoxifylline is an inhibitor of tumor necrosis factor, and has been proposed as treatment for alcoholic hepatitis. However, it is not clear if it is effective, or if it adds benefit to the treatment with corticosteroids. Searching in Epistemonikos database, which is maintained by screening 30 databases, we identified three systematic reviews including eight randomized controlled trials addressing the question of this article. We combined the evidence using meta-analysis and generated a summary of findings following the GRADE approach. We concluded pentoxifylline probably leads to little or no difference in mortality in alcoholic hepatitis.