Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 Dec 7;52(1):75-82.
doi: 10.1515/raon-2017-0056. eCollection 2018 Mar.

The Impact of Outpatient Clinical Care on the Survival and Hospitalisation Rate in Patients with Alcoholic Liver Cirrhosis

Dejan Majc  1 , Bojan Tepes  2
Affiliations

The Impact of Outpatient Clinical Care on the Survival and Hospitalisation Rate in Patients with Alcoholic Liver Cirrhosis

Dejan Majc et al. Radiol Oncol. .

Abstract

Background: In the study, we aimed to determine whether regular outpatient controls in patients with alcoholic liver cirrhosis have an impact on their survival and hospitalisation rates.

Patients and methods: We included patients with liver cirrhosis and regular outpatient controls as a prospective study group and patients with liver cirrhosis who were admitted to hospital only in cases of complications as a retrospective control group. The study was conducted between 2006 and 2011.

Results: We included 98 patients in the study group and 101 patients in the control group. There were more outpatient controls in the study group than in the control group (5.54 examinations vs. 2.27 examinations, p = 0.000). Patients in the study group had 25 fewer hospitalisations (10.2%; p = 0.612). The median survival rate was 4.6 years in the study group and 2.9 years in the control group (p = 0.021). Patients with Child A classification had an average survival of one year longer in the study group (p = 0.035). No significant difference was found for Child B patients. Patients with Child C classification had longer survival by 1.6 years in the study group (p = 0.006). Alcohol consumption was lower in the study group than in the control group (p = 0.018).

Conclusions: We confirmed that patients with regular outpatient controls had lower alcohol consumption, a lower hospitalisation rate and significantly prolonged survival time. We confirmed the necessity for the establishment of regular outpatient controls in patients with alcoholic liver cirrhosis.

Keywords: Child-Pugh classification; liver cirrhosis; regular outpatient controls; survival rate.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure: No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.

References

    1. Hug BL, Lipsitz SR, Seger DL, Karson AS, Wright SC, Bates DW. Mortality and drug exposure in a 5-year cohort of patients with chronic liver disease. Swiss Med Wkly. 2009;139:737–46. - PubMed
    1. Rehm J, Samokhvalov AV, Shield KD. Global burden of alcoholic liver diseases. J Hepatol. 2013;59:160–8. doi: 10.1016/j.jhep.2013.03.007. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kocijančič A, Mrevlje F, Štajer D. [Internal medicine] [Slovenian] Third. Ljubljana: Literra picta; 2005. pp. 592–619.
    1. Košnik M, Mrevlje F, Štajer D, Koželj M, Černelč P. [Internal medicine] [Slovenian] Vol. 663. Ljubljana: Literra picta; 2011. pp. 669–72.
    1. Fauci AS, Braunwald E, Kasper DL, Hauser SL, Longo DL, Jameson JL, Harrison’s principles of internal medicine. II. Vol. 233. New York: McGraw-Hill Medical; 2008. pp. 1969-78–1982-3.

LinkOut - more resources