Daily ciprofloxacin treatment for patients with advanced liver disease awaiting liver transplantation reduces hospitalizations.

Background: Progressive deterioration in liver function is a common cause of hepatic decompensation and indication for liver transplantation in patients with advanced liver disease. Previous studies in animal models of acute and chronic liver disease revealed that daily ciprofloxacin improves biochemical parameters of hepatic function.

Aims: The primary objective of this study was to determine whether hepatic function improves in patients with advanced liver disease after 1 month of daily ciprofloxacin therapy. A secondary objective was to determine whether ciprofloxacin treatment for 1 or 3 months results in fewer hospitalizations for decompensated liver disease.

Methods: Forty-four patients with advanced liver disease awaiting liver transplantation received oral ciprofloxacin (250 or 500 mg twice daily) or placebo for 1 (n=22/group) or 3 (n=10 ciprofloxacin, 14 placebo) months.

Results: Compared to placebo recipients, ciprofloxacin-treated patients had mild improvements in serum albumin levels (+1.5 versus -3.4%, p=0.026) while bilirubin and international normalized ratios (INR) of prothrombin times remained unchanged. Overall, fewer hospitalizations occurred in ciprofloxacin-treated patients (1/22, 5% versus 7/22, 32%, respectively, p=0.02) during the study period. Treatment was well tolerated and no resistant infections occurred in either cohort.

Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that daily ciprofloxacin may result in fewer hospitalizations for patients with advanced liver diseases awaiting liver transplantation but not by enhancing hepatic function.