Systematic Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jan 26, 2019; 7(2): 156-170
Published online Jan 26, 2019. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v7.i2.156
Interventions to improve sarcopenia in cirrhosis: A systematic review
Maliha Naseer, Erica P Turse, Ali Syed, Francis E Dailey, Mallak Zatreh, Veysel Tahan
Maliha Naseer, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27834, United States
Erica P Turse, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, St Joseph Hospital Medical Center/Creighton University, Phoenix, AZ 85013, United States
Ali Syed, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65212, United States
Francis E Dailey, Mallak Zatreh, Veysel Tahan, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65212, United States
Author contributions: All authors equally contributed to this paper with conception and design of the study, literature review and analysis, drafting and critical revision and editing, and final approval of the final version.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No potential conflicts of interest.
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/
Corresponding author: Veysel Tahan, FACG, FACP, FESBGH, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of Missouri, One Hospital Drive, CD 405, Columbia, MO 65212, United States. tahanv@health.missouri.edu
Telephone: +1-573-8846044 Fax: +1-573-8844595
Received: October 18, 2018
Peer-review started: October 18, 2018
First decision: November 29, 2018
Revised: December 10, 2018
Accepted: December 12, 2018
Article in press: December 12, 2018
Published online: January 26, 2019
Processing time: 100 Days and 12.8 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Sarcopenia is now a well-recognized complication of cirrhosis and in cases of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease can contribute to accelerate liver fibrosis leading to cirrhosis. Hence, it is imperative to study interventions which targets to improve sarcopenia in cirrhosis. Aim of this systematic review of the literature was to examine the relationship between interventions such nutritional supplementation, exercise, combined life style intervention, testosterone replacement and trans jugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt to improve muscle mass in cirrhosis. We suggest improvement in the sarcopenia in cirrhosis with exercise, nutritional interventions, hormonal and trans jugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt interventions.