title: Hepatic encephalopathy: what the multidisciplinary team can do.
abstract: Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is a complex disease requiring a multidisciplinary approach among specialists, primary care team, family, and caregivers. HE is currently a diagnosis of exclusion, requiring an extensive workup to exclude other possible etiologies, including mental status changes, metabolic, infectious, traumatic, and iatrogenic causes. The categorization of HE encompasses a continuum, varying from the clinically silent minimal HE (MHE), which is only detectable using psychometric tests, to overt HE, which is further divided into four grades of severity. While there has been an increased effort to create fast and reliable methods for the detection of MHE, screening is still underperformed due to the lack of standardization and efficient methods of diagnosis. The management of HE requires consultation from various disciplines, including hepatology, primary care physicians, neurology, psychiatry, dietician/nutritionist, social workers, and other medical and surgical subspecialties based on clinical presentation and clear communication among these disciplines to best manage patients with HE throughout their course. The first-line therapy for HE is lactulose with or without rifaximin. Following the initial episode of overt HE, secondary prophylaxis with lactulose and/or rifaximin is indicated with the goal to prevent recurrent episodes and improve quality of life. Recent studies have demonstrated the negative impact of MHE on quality of life and clinical outcomes. In light of all this, we emphasize the importance of screening and treating MHE in patients with liver cirrhosis, particularly through a multidisciplinary team approach.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco, CA.
authors.forename: Andy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Illinois College of Medicine, Chicago, IL.
authors.forename: Eric R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Yoo
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Brown University, Providence, RI.
authors.forename: Osama
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Siddique
authors.affiliation: Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA.
authors.forename: Ryan B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Perumpail
authors.affiliation: Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center, Memphis, TN, USA.
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cholankeril
authors.affiliation: Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA.
authors.forename: Aijaz
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ahmed
keywords: hepatic encephalopathy; management; multidisciplinary; multidisciplinary team