The Predictive Factors for Recurrence of Spontaneous Bacterial Peritonitis

Background and objectives: Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis(SBP) is a common and critical complication of cirrhosis. Theaim of this work is to find the possible predictive factors forrecurrence of SBP in decompensated cirrhotic patients.Patients and methods: This study included one hundredand thirty-four cirrhotic ascitic patients who were diagnosed withSBP. The diagnosis of SBP was based on ascitic polymorphonuclearleukocytes (PMN) counts ≥250 cells/mm3. The studiedpatients were classified into two groups; group 1 included sixtyninthpatients with recurrent SBP and group 2; includedsixty-five patients with non-recurrent SPB. Results: Asignificant difference was found between both studied groups asregards the presence of fever, HRS (hepatorenal syndrome,the serum albumin and the ascitic fluid PMN in asciticcirrhotic patients (P= 0.010, p= 0.001, p=0.021, p= 0.045respectively). Furthermore, a multivariate analysis revealed thatthe presence of fever, hepatorenal syndrome, and increasedascitic fluid PMN represent independent variables predict therecurrence of SBP in cirrhotic ascetic patients (p= 0.001 for all).Conclusion: Our study revealed that the presence of fever, HRS,and increased PMN count in ascitic fluid were independentpredictors of recurrence of SBP in cirrhotic ascetic patients..