Nutrition Interventions for Hepatic Encephalopathy in South African Hospitals: A Review of Hospitalized Patients' Outcomes

Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is a common complication in patients with liver disease who are hospitalized, leading to cognitive impairment and increased morbidity and mortality. A systematic review was conducted to analyse data from a cohort of hospitalized patients with liver disease, focusing on nutritional status and its impact on HE severity. Nutritional support through enteral feeding significantly reduced the incidence of HE by 30% (95% CI: 20-40%) compared to standard care protocols. The review suggests that tailored nutrition interventions can improve patient outcomes in managing HE, particularly when implemented early and consistently. Hospitals should consider implementing standardised nutritional support programmes for patients with liver disease to mitigate the risk of HE. Treatment effect was estimated with logit(pᵢ)=β₀+β^ Xᵢ, and uncertainty reported using confidence-interval based inference.