Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Aug 14, 2021; 27(30): 4985-4998
Published online Aug 14, 2021. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v27.i30.4985
Malnutrition and liver disease in a developing country
Asra tus Saleha Siddiqui, Om Parkash, Syeda Amrah Hashmi
Asra tus Saleha Siddiqui, Department of Medicine, The Aga Khan University, Karachi 74800, Pakistan
Om Parkash, Department of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, The Aga Khan University, Karachi 74800, Pakistan
Syeda Amrah Hashmi, Medical College, The Aga Khan University, Karachi 74800, Pakistan
Author contributions: Siddiqui ATS, Parkash O and Hashmi SA performed the literature review and wrote the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest for this article.
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: Om Parkash, FCPS, MBBS, Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, The Aga Khan University, Stadium Road, Karachi 74800, Pakistan. om.parkash@aku.edu
Received: January 28, 2021
Peer-review started: January 28, 2021
First decision: March 6, 2021
Revised: March 19, 2021
Accepted: July 2, 2021
Article in press: July 2, 2021
Published online: August 14, 2021
Core Tip

Core Tip: Malnutrition in liver cirrhosis is a serious problem in South Asia where the etiology differs from the Western population. As malnutrition is generally highly prevalent in the region, it causes an impact on patients with liver cirrhosis. Urgent attention to address malnutrition is needed to improve patient outcomes. Emphasis on assessment for nutritional status at the initial visit with recording of vital signs is also needed. Simultaneously, treating physicians need to be made aware of the misconceptions surrounding nutritional restrictions in cirrhosis so that patient education is done correctly based on proper scientific evidence.