Letter to the Editor
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Nov 28, 2020; 26(44): 7085-7087
Published online Nov 28, 2020. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v26.i44.7085
Letter to editor ‘prognostic significance of hepatic encephalopathy in patients with cirrhosis treated with Rifaxamin’
Amera Elzubeir, Syed Munawer Alam
Amera Elzubeir, Syed Munawer Alam, Department of Gastroenterology, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, Norwich NR46AY, Norfolk, United Kingdom
Author contributions: Both authors wrote and edited the manuscript
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare they have no conflicts of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Syed Munawer Alam, FRCP, MBBS, Doctor, Department of Gastroenterology, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, Colney Lane Norwich Norfolk, Norwich NR46AY, Norfolk, United Kingdom. syed.alam@nnuh.nhs.uk
Received: June 25, 2020
Peer-review started: June 25, 2020
First decision: July 28, 2020
Revised: August 26, 2020
Accepted: November 9, 2020
Article in press: November 9, 2020
Published online: November 28, 2020
Processing time: 154 Days and 12.3 Hours
Abstract

The present letter to editor is related to Bohra A et al Prognostic significance of hepatic encephalopathy in patients with cirrhosis treated with current standards of care. World J Gastroenterol 2020; 26(18): 2221-2231. Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is a significant and frequent major decompensating event in cirrhosis. However clinical studies examining the clinical outcome of HE are lacking despite its high prevalence.

Keywords: Hepatic encephalopathy; Cirrhosis; Rifaxamin; Portal hypertension; Acute on chronic liver failure; Prognosis

Core Tip: This letter to editor serves to add to the ongoing conversation regarding hepatic encephalopathy (HE) and its prognostic significance. The major highlight of this letter is to stress the importance of recognizing other prognostically significant variables such as sarcopenia and active Hepatitis C, which may adversely impact the severity and outcomes of HE. Furthermore it serves to actively encourage future studies in this area.