PREVALENCE OF BACTERIAL-INFECTIONS IN HOS PITALIZED-PATIENTS WITH LIVER-CIRRHOSIS

The aim of this work was to study the prevalence of bacterial infectio ns in hospitalized patients with liver cirrhosis and to compare clinic al, bacteriological and evolution features of patients with (group 1) and without bacterial infections (group 2). One hundred thirty two hos pitalized patients with liver cirrhosis were prospectively studied and 61 episodes of bacterial infections were diagnosed in 52 (27 spontane ous bacterial peritonitis (44.3%), 16 urinary tract infections (26.2%) , 10 pneumonias (16.4%), 3 spontaneous bacteremias (4.9%9, and 5 misce llaneous infections (8.2%)). Twenty six percent of infections were nos ocomial. Child-Pugh score was 12 +/- 2 in group 1 vs 10 +/- 2 in group 2 (p = 0.047). Sixty five percent of identified microorganisms were g ram negative and 61.5% of these were E. coli. Hospital mortality of gr oup 1 was 29% and that of group 2 was 9% (p = 0.002). It is concluded that there is a high prevalence of bacterial infections in hospitalize d cirrhotic patients, that is associated to a high mortality.