Methylprednisolone improves survival in liver failure due to hepatitis B: Study

China: The use of methylprednisolone (MP) is a safe and effective treatment for hepatitis B virus-related acute-on-chronic liver failure (HBV-ACLF) increasing the survival rate of 6 months, reveals a recent study in the journal BMC Medicine.

In Asia, HBV-ACLF accounts for about 70% of all ACLF cases, which is identified with severe acute exacerbation (AE) of liver function to liver failure in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients with high mortality. Only curative treatment for ACLF is liver transplantation with limited application. Up til now no effective treatment has been developed for HBV-ACLF patients. The use of MP in HBV-ACLF is still controversial.

Qing-Hua Meng, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China, and colleagues aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of MP in HBV-ACLF.

It included a total of 171 HBV-ACLF patients from three medical centers. They were randomly allocated into two groups. MP group consisted of 2 patients treated with intravenously guttae for 7 days plus standard treatment: 1.5 mg/kg/day [day 1–3], 1 mg/kg/day [day 4–5], and 0.5 mg/kg/day [day 6–7]. Control group consisted of 88 patients treated with standard treatment.