Retrospective Cohort Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Sep 7, 2018; 24(33): 3770-3775
Published online Sep 7, 2018. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v24.i33.3770
Beta-blockers and physical frailty in patients with end-stage liver disease
Selena Z Kuo, Blanca Lizaola, Hilary Hayssen, Jennifer C Lai
Selena Z Kuo, Blanca Lizaola, Hilary Hayssen, Jennifer C Lai, Division of Gastroenterology/Hepatology, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143, United States
Author contributions: Kuo SZ and Lai JC designed research, and analyzed data; Kuo SZ performed research; Kuo SZ, Lizaola B, Hayssen H and Lai JC wrote the paper.
Supported by the Paul B. Beeson Career Development Award in Aging Research, No. K23AG048337.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the International Review Board of the University of California, San Francisco
Conflict-of-interest statement: We have no conflict of interests to disclose.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement – checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement – Checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Jennifer C Lai, MD, MBA, Assistant Professor, Gastroenterology, University of California, San Francisco, 513 Parnassus Ave, San Francisco, CA 94143, United States. jennifer.lai@ucsf.edu
Telephone: +415-476-2777 Fax: +415-476-0659
Received: May 19, 2018
Peer-review started: May 19, 2018
First decision: June 5, 2018
Revised: July 18, 2018
Accepted: July 22, 2018
Article in press: July 22, 2018
Published online: September 7, 2018
Core Tip

Core tip: In patients with cirrhosis, beta-blockers are the main medical treatment for prevention of variceal bleeds, but fatigue and weakness are commonly reported side effects. This study demonstrates that use of beta-blockers is not associated with physical frailty and improves survival in patients with cirrhosis.