[Bacterial infection in cirrhotic patient]

Abstract

Background: Bacterial infections at admission or during hospitalization are frequent complication of cirrhosis that occurs in about 30% of the cases. Furthermore they are responsible for 25% of deaths in this population.

Aim: Evaluate the prevalence of bacterial infections in cirrhotic patients at a general hospital and determine its correlation with alcoholic etiology of liver disease; degree of hepatic dysfunction and upper gastrointestinal bleeding.

Patients/methods: Five hundred and forty one admissions were retrospectively evaluated in 426 cirrhotic patients at years 1992 to 2000. The mean age was 50.5 years (15-95), being 71.2% male. The alcoholic etiology of cirrhosis was 35.4%. The main outcome considered was discharge or death during admission.

Results: One hundred and thirty five episodes of bacterial infections (25%) were diagnosed. The most frequent are urinary tract infection (31.1%), spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (25.9%) and pneumonia (25.2%). The association between urinary tract infection and pneumonia occurred in 3.7% and erysipelas or cellulites in 11.1%. Bacteremia occurred in 2.9%. There was a correlation between bacterial infection and alcoholic etiology of liver disease, hepatic dysfunction and upper gastrointestinal bleeding. The mortality was higher in the infected patients (8.9%) and in those with a poor hepatic function.

Conclusions: Bacterial infections are common complications in cirrhotic patients and are correlated with alcoholic etiology, Child Pugh classification and upper gastrointestinal bleeding. Furthermore, bacterial infections are correlated with poor prognosis.