Meld Score and Hepatic Encephalopathy as Predictors of Mortality in Patients With Decompensated Alcoholic Liver Cirrhosis

Cirrhosis is the final stage of numerous chronic liver diseases.The disease most often occurs as a result of chronic alcohol consumption and infection with hepatitis C and B viruses.Over 3 million people die globally as a result of alcohol consumption.Prognostic scores have been developed to estimate survival rates.The MELD score (model for endstage liver disease) is used today in the prognosis of short-term survival of patients with decompensated liver cirrhosis.This prospective/retrospective study was conducted on a sample of 56 patients (52 male and 4 female) with an average age of 55.23 ± 10.82.MELD score values were calculated at the end of hospitalization and correlated with defined treatment outcomes.Based on the conducted receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, cut-off values of MELD score over 23.5 were statistically significant in the prognosis of mortality.Of the total examined population, 72% of patients with a score higher than the obtained cut-off value died.The total number of patients with hepatic encephalopathy was 34 (61%), of which 23 died.ROC analysis in the group of patients with hepatic encephalopathy revealed a cut-off value of the MELD score of 30.5, which is statistically not significantly different from the cut-off value of the MELD score for survival.The male-to-female ratio in the subsamples of deceased and survived patients in this study was approximately equal.The cut-off value of the MELD score proved to be statistically significant in predicting short-term survival.The increase in the cut-off value of the MELD score in patients with hepatic encephalopathy was not statistically significant.In the group of patients with hepatic encephalopathy, 92% of patients died, although no statistically significant increase in the cut-off value of the MELD score was found.