Prognostic Significance of Hypokalemia on Length of Hospital Stay in Patients with Hepatic Encephalopathy

Background: Patients with cirrhosis may have either a chronic neuropsychiatric state due to portal-systematic shunting or have an acute episode with some precipitating factor labeled as hepatic encephalopathy. In patients with encephalopathy, hypokalemic alkalosis leads to an increase in the amount...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Pakistan journal of medical research 2022-10, Vol.61 (3)
Main Authors: Daniyal Fahad, Shahbaz Haider, Sumera Tabassum, Faryal Khalid, Saima Mushtaque, Akhtar Ali
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
frequency
hepatic encephalopathy
hospital stay
Hypokalemia
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Background: Patients with cirrhosis may have either a chronic neuropsychiatric state due to portal-systematic shunting or have an acute episode with some precipitating factor labeled as hepatic encephalopathy. In patients with encephalopathy, hypokalemic alkalosis leads to an increase in the amount of nonionic ammonia that readily crosses the blood brain barrier and accumulates in the CNS that can worsen the disease. Objective: The purpose of the study was to determine the frequency of hypokalemia in patients with hepatic encephalopathy and to compare the length of the hospital stay in hepatic encephalopathy patients with and without hypokalemia. Study type, settings & duration: This cross sectional study was conducted at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Karachi from February to July 2021.   Methodology: The sample was calculated by using WHO sample size calculator at 95% confidence interval and absolute precision of 8% with anticipated population proportion of 35%. The sample was recruited by using non-probability consecutive sampling technique. Hepatic encephalopathy was diagnosed on basis of clinical examination by West Haven Classification grades. Patients were diagnosed for hypokalemia by hospital lab as having potassium levels
ISSN:0030-9842