Low incidence of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis in asymptomatic cirrhotic outpatients

Table 1 Characteristics of the 1041 patients who underwent diagnostic or therapeutic paracentesis

Characteristics
Male, n (%)	748 (71.9)
Age (yr), mean (range)	60 (25-93)
Median number of paracenteses	2
Cause of cirrhosis, n (%)
Alcohol	840 (80.7)
Alcohol + viral hepatitis (B or C)	52 (5)
Viral hepatitis	88 (8.4)
Hemochromatosis	6 (0.6)
Others	55 (5.3)
Child-Pugh score, n (%)
A	0
B	470 (45.2)
C	571 (54.8)
Prothrombin time (%), median (range)	52 (20-85)
Serum bilirubin (μmol/L), median (range)	30 (10-812)
Albumin (g/L), median (range)	29 (16.5-53)
Platelet count (109 cells/mL), median (range)	130 (15-684)
Serum creatinine (μmol/L), median (range)	80 (22-474)

Table 2 Comparison between outpatients and inpatients

	Outpatients	Inpatients	P value
Age (yr)	61.1 ± 11.1	59.4 ± 11.7	< 0.03
Alcohol (%)	83.7	88.2	< 0.001
Child-Pugh score (mean)	8.9	10.1	< 0.001
Child-Pugh score B vs C (%)	63.7/36.3	38.0/62.0	< 0.001
Bilirubin (μmol/L)	38.2 ± 6.7	96.3 ± 143.3	< 0.0001
Platelets (109 cells/mL)	161 ± 93	143 ± 89	< 0.003
Ascitic protein concentration (g/L)	17.9 ± 10.9	14.5 ± 10.9	< 0.001

Table 3 Prevalence of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis in asymptomatic outpatients in main published series

Ref.	No. of patients	No. of paracenteses	Prevalence of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis
Jeffries et al[5]	29	118	0 (0%)
Evans et al[8]	427	427	15 (3.5%)
Romney et al[9]	67	270	0 (0%)
Castellote et al[10]	40	204	1 (0.5%)
Present study	355	976	1.2