Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis: Prevention and therapy

Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) is a serious problem in patients with cirrhotic ascites, with an incidence of 10% to 25% on hospital admission (1) and accounting for 5% to 30% of all infections in cirrhotic patients (2, 3), 19% of documented bacteremic episodes (4) and 60% to 75% of all "serious" infections (5, 6). Recent studies (1,7,8) have focused attention on culture techniques, diagnosis, differentiation from secondary peritonitis, pathogenesis and predisposing factors. However, data on prevention and therapy have been scarce.