Table 3.

Published studies on corticosteroid therapy in patients with liver cirrhosis

Ref.	No. of patients (type of cirrhosis)	Study design	Steroid dose	Outcomes
Harry et al[14]	20 (ALF or ACLF)	Retrospective	Hydrocortisone 300 mg/d	Reduction in vasopressor doses, but higher incidence of infection and no survival benefit
Marik et al[12]	140 (ALF or CLD)	Not RCT	Hydrocortisone 300 mg/d	Reduction in the dose of norepinephrine at 24 h, and lower mortality rate increased survival
Fernandez et al[13]	17 (cirrhosis and septic shock)	Prospective but not RCT	Hydrocortisone 200 mg/d	Significant increase in shock resolution and high hospital survival rate
Arabi et al[29]	39 (cirrhosis and septic shock)	RCT	Hydrocortisone 200 mg/d	Reduction in vasopressor doses and higher rates of shock reversal, but no benefit in 28 d mortality, increase in gastrointestinal bleeding and shock relapse

ALF: Acute liver failure; ACLF: Acute-on-chronic liver failure; CLD: Chronic liver disease; RCT: Randomized controlled trial.