Retrospective Cohort Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Apr 27, 2025; 17(4): 104056
Published online Apr 27, 2025. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v17.i4.104056
Rifaximin-α use is associated with improved muscle mass in patients with cirrhosis
Thomas Worland, Penelope Hey, Darren Wong, Ross Apostolov, Roseanne Kimberley Chan, Marie Sinclair, Paul Gow
Thomas Worland, Department of Gastroenterology, Monash Health, Clayton 3168, Victoria, Australia
Penelope Hey, Ross Apostolov, Roseanne Kimberley Chan, Marie Sinclair, Paul Gow, Liver Transplant Unit, Austin Health, Heidelberg 3084, Victoria, Australia
Penelope Hey, Darren Wong, Ross Apostolov, Marie Sinclair, Paul Gow, Department of Medicine, University of Melbourne, Melbourne 3000, Victoria, Australia
Darren Wong, Department of Gastroenterology, Austin Health, Heidelberg 3084, Victoria, Australia
Author contributions: Study design and protocol development were done by Hey P and Gow P; ethics approval was obtained Hey P and Gow P; data collection was done by Worland T, Apostolov R, and Chan RK; data interpretation and analysis were undertaken by Worland T, Wong D, Sinclair S, and Gow P; all authors contributed to the manuscript preparation and revision and have approved the final version.
Supported by Norgine, the marketing authorization holder of rifaximin-α (Xifaxan©).
Institutional review board statement: This research project was approved by the local office of research and ethics, Audit/20/Austin/121.
Informed consent statement: The need for patient consent was waived due to the retrospective and deidentified nature of this study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No other relevant conflict-of-interests exist in relation to this study for all authors.
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.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Thomas Worland, MD, Department of Gastroenterology, Monash Health, Clayton Road, Clayton 3168, Victoria, Australia. thomas.worland@monashhealth.org
Received: December 9, 2024
Revised: February 21, 2025
Accepted: April 3, 2025
Published online: April 27, 2025
Processing time: 137 Days and 22.2 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Sarcopaenia is associated with poorer outcomes in cirrhotic patients. In our study Rifaximin use was found to be independently associated with improvement of muscle mass in patients with cirrhosis. Rifaximin's potential as a therapeutic agent directed against cirrhosis associated sarcopaenia will require prospective research.