A COMPARATIVE STUDY TO ASSESS THE EFFICACY BETWEEN METRONIDAZOLE-IV & RIFAXIMIN 550 Mg FOR HEPATIC ENCEPHALOPATHY MANAGEMENT

Objective: The objective of this research was to compare the efficacy between metronidazole-IV and rifaximin for the management of hepatic encephalopathy.

Material and Methods: We carried out this comparative at Mayo Hospital, Lahore from August 2017 to March 2018 on a total of 120 hepatic encephalopathy patients without any discrimination of gender. The patients were enrolled in the age bracket of (40 – 60) years. Patients were divided into two groups Group I & II which were respectively managed with Rifaxamin 550 mg B.D for Group – I through nasogastric tube and Group – II managed with metronidazole-IV 500 mg at an interval of eight hourly. We assessed the effectiveness of both the drugs after seven days.

Results: Research population consisted of 120 hepatic encephalopathy patients who were enrolled in the age bracket of 40 – 60 years with a mean age of (49.43 ± 6.866) years. Group-wise mean age was reported in Group – A (49.37 ± 6.757) years and in Group – B (49.50 ± 7.029) years. In the total of sixty patients treated with Rifaxamin group the treatment efficacy was reported in 14 patients (23.33%) and for Metronidazole group in 45 patients (75%). Efficacy was more significant among Group – A than Group – B (P-Value 0.000).

Conclusion: Metronidazole treated patients showed better outcomes than Rifaxamin treated patients. There was a statistically significant correlation was reported in gender and age.

Keywords: Lactulose, Hepatic Encephalopathy (HE), Neomycin, Rifaximin, Metronidazole and Efficacy.