Evaluation of the Clinical Impact of Adjunctive L-carnitine Therapy in Critically Ill Hepatic Patients Admitted to Intensive Care Unit

Decompensated cirrhosis is characterized by high hospitalization rates and costs, frequent readmissions, and poor short-term survival. Patients admitted to the hospital with acute variceal bleeding and/or hepatic encephalopathy are at serious risk for developing infection and/or sepsis; in turn, this renders them highly susceptible to the development of multi-system organ failure. The lack of standardized intensive care unit management protocols in patients with cirrhosis along with only few data reports from longitudinal clinical trials makes it difficult for hepatologists and critical care specialists to provide uniform evidence for clinical practice that could safely consolidate favorable outcomes such as lower hospitalization rates and/or mortality.

Decompensated cirrhosis is a common reason for admission to the acute medical unit, and such patients typically have complex medical needs and are at high risk of in-hospital death. It is therefore vital that these patients receive appropriate investigations and management as early as possible in their patient journey. Typical presenting clinical features include jaundice, ascites, hepatic encephalopathy, hepato-renal syndrome ,or variceal hemorrhages.

hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is defined as a brain dysfunction caused by liver insufficiency and/or portal-systemic blood shunting. It manifests as a wide spectrum of neurological or psychiatric abnormalities, ranging from subclinical alterations, detectable only by neuropsychological or neurophysiological assessment, to coma.

Hepatorenal syndrome (HRS) is a common complication of advanced cirrhosis, characterized by renal failure and major disturbances in circulatory function. Renal failure is caused by intense vasoconstriction of the renal circulation. The syndrome is probably the final consequence of extreme underfilling of the arterial circulation secondary to arterial vasodilatation in the splanchnic vascular bed. As well as the renal circulation, most extra splanchnic vascular beds are vasoconstricted.

Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) is the most frequent and life-threatening infection in patients with liver cirrhosis requiring prompt recognition and treatment. It is defined by the presence of >250 polymorphonuclear cells (PMN)/mm3 in ascites in the absence of an intra-abdominal source of infection or malignancy.