Hepatic encephalopathy in patients with non-cirrhotic portal hypertension: Description, prevalence and risk factors.

Background: Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is a common complication of cirrhosis but it is less studied in patients with non-cirrhotic portal hypertension (NCPH).

Aims: To describe the prevalence of cognitive impairment (overt and covert HE) in NCPH patients and to identify the risk factors for its development.

Methods: 51 patients with NCPH, 35 with chronic portal vein thrombosis (PVT) and 16 with idiopathic non-cirrhotic portal hypertension (INCPH), were evaluated for the presence of previous or present overt HE (OHE). The psychometric hepatic encephalopathy score and the SCAN battery were used to detect the presence of covert HE (CHE). 34 compensated cirrhotic patients were used as control. In NCPH patients, abdominal scans were performed to detect the presence of shunts.

Results: None of the patients experienced OHE at evaluation while 5.7% of PVT and 12.5% of INCPH patients referred at least one documented episode of previous OHE, similarly to patients with cirrhosis (14.7%). Even if lower than in patients with cirrhosis (64.7%), a considerable proportion of patients with chronic PVT (34.3%) and INCPH (25%) had CHE (p=0.008). The presence of a large portal-systemic shunt was the only factor significantly correlated to cognitive impairment in NCPH patients.

Conclusion: HE is a tangible complication of NCPH and is mainly related to the presence of portal-systemic shunts.