Antifibrinolytic amino acids for acquired coagulation disorders in patients with liver disease.
BACKGROUND
Upper gastrointestinal bleeding is one of the most frequent causes of morbidity and mortality in the course of liver cirrhosis. Patients with liver disease frequently have haemostatic abnormalities, which include accelerated fibrinolysis. Several primary treatments are used for upper gastrointestinal bleeding in patients with liver diseases. Supplementary interventions are often used as well. One of them could be antifibrinolytic amino acids administration.


OBJECTIVE
To assess the beneficial and harmful effects of antifibrinolytic amino acids for upper gastrointestinal bleeding in patients with acute or chronic liver disease plus acquired coagulation disorders.


METHODS
We searched The Cochrane Hepato-Biliary Group Controlled Trials Register (March 2006), the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) in The Cochrane Library (Issue 1, 2006), MEDLINE (1950 to March 2006), EMBASE (1980 to March 2006), Science Citation Index EXPANDED (1945 to March 2006), LILACS (1982 to March 2006), ClinicalTrials.gov (at www.clinicaltrials.gov) (accessed August 2006), ISI Web of Science (April 2006), and the International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number Register (at http://controlled-trials.com/isrctn/search.asp) (accessed August 2006). We also checked the reference lists of all the trials identified by the above methods.


METHODS
We searched for randomised clinical trials irrespective of blinding, language, or publication status.


METHODS
We intended to summarise data by standard Cochrane Collaboration methodologies.


RESULTS
We could not find any randomised clinical trials with antifibrinolytic amino acids for upper gastrointestinal bleeding in patients with acute or chronic liver disease plus acquired coagulation disorders.


CONCLUSIONS
We were unable to identify randomised clinical trials on the safety and efficacy of antifibrinolytic amino acids for upper gastrointestinal bleeding in patients with liver disease (acute or chronic) plus acquired coagulation disorders. The effects of antifibrinolytic amino acids has to be tested in randomised clinical trials.
Marti-Carvajal
A J
AJ
Departamento de Salud Pública, Universidad de Carabobo, Valencia, Edo. Carabobo, Venezuela, 2006. amarti@uc.edu.ve
Pérez-Requejo
J L
JL
D000596:Amino Acids / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D000933:Antifibrinolytic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001778:Blood Coagulation Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000150:complications*
D000596:Amino Acids; D000933:Antifibrinolytic Agents