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Abstract Details
The use of Rifaximin in Patients with Cirrhosis
Hepatology. 2021 Jan 9. doi: 10.1002/hep.31708. Online ahead of print.
Paolo Caraceni1, Victor Vargas2, Elsa Solà3, Carlo Alessandria4, Koos de Wit5, Jonel Trebicka67, Paolo Angeli8, Rajeshwar P Mookerjee9, François Durand10, Elisa Pose3, Aleksander Krag1112, Jasmohan S Bajaj13, Ulrich Beuers5, Pere Ginès3
Author information
1University of Bologna, University hospital S. Orsola-Malpighi di Bologna, Italy.
3Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, University of Barcelona, IDIBAPS, CIBEReHD, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
4Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Città della Salute e della Scienza Hospital, University of Torino, Italy.
5Amsterdam University Medical Centers, location AMC, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
6Goethe-University - Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
7EF-CLIF, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
8University Hospital of Padova, Padova, Italy.
9Royal Free Hospital, University College London, United Kingdom.
10Hospital Beaujon, Clichy, APHP, France.
11Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Odense University Hospital, Odense, Denmark.
12Institute of Clinical Research, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark.
13VirginiaCommonwealth University Medical Center, Richmond, Virginia, USA.
Abstract
Rifaximin is an oral non-systemic antibiotic, with minimal gastrointestinal absorption and broad-spectrum antibacterial activity covering both grampositive and gramnegative organisms. Rifaximin is currently worldwide used in patients with cirrhosis for preventing recurrent hepatic encephalopathy because its efficacy and safety has been proved by large randomized clinical trials. In the last decade, experimental and clinical evidence suggest that rifaximin could have other beneficial effects on the course of cirrhosis by modulating the gut microbiome and affecting the gut-liver axis, which, in turn, can interfere with major events of the pathophysiological cascade underlying decompensated cirrhosis, such as systemic inflammatory syndrome, portal hypertension, and bacterial infections. However, the use of rifaximin for prevention or treatment of other complications, including spontaneous bacterial peritonitis or other bacterial infections, is not accepted as evidence by clinical trials is still very weak. The present review deals in the first part with the potential impact of rifaximin on pathogenic mechanisms in liver diseases, whereas, in the second part, its clinical effects are critically discussed. It clearly emerges that, due to its potential activity on multiple pathogenic events, the efficacy of rifaximin in the prevention or management of complications other than hepatic encephalopathy deserves to be investigated extensively. The results of double-blinded, adequately powered randomized clinical trials assessing the effect of rifaximin, alone or in combination with other drugs, on hard clinical endpoints, such as decompensation of cirrhosis, acute-on-chronic liver failure and mortality, are therefore eagerly awaited.