Outcome and prognostic markers of cirrhotic and non-cirrhotic patients admitted to a hepatology ICU in a tertiary care university hospital

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Patients with decompensated liver cirrhosis are not given priority for ICU admission in the settings of limited place availability. Recently, advances in medical care led to improvement in their survival. Our aim is to study the outcome of patients admitted to our hepatology ICU. METHODS: We retrieved the data of patients admitted to the Endemic Medicine Department ICU at Kasr Al-Ainy Hospital in the period from November 2014 to May 2018. We included 498 patients who had complete clinical and outcome data in this analysis. The primary outcome was ICU mortality and its predictors. RESULTS: The overall mortality was 48.1% in the liver cirrhosis versus 52.9% in the non-cirrhosis group. The most common presentations of cirrhotic patients were hepatic encephalopathy and hypovolemic shock. The SOFA score and sepsis independently predicted mortality in the overall cohort. CONCLUSION: The mortality of cirrhotic patients admitted to ICU is not higher than non-cirrhotic patients. SOFA score is a good prognostic indicator in patients with cirrhosis.