4. Precipitating factors.

Trial	Participants (n)	Precipitating factors (n)
Barbaro 1998	527	Gastrointestinal bleeding (352), surgery (95), sepsis (45), dehydration (6), unknown (29).
Cadranel 1995	14	Gastrointestinal bleeding (4), sepsis (7), alcoholic hepatitis (3), portal vein thrombosis (1), viral hepatitis (1), unknown (2).
Lacetti 2000	54	Gastrointestinal bleeding (31), sepsis (7), drugs (11), surgery (1).
Pomier‐Layrargues 1994	21	Gastrointestinal bleeding (7), sepsis (2), dehydration (1), surgery (2), none (9), portacaval shunting (4).
Van der Rijt 1995	18	Hepatitis (5), acute exacerbation in cirrhosis (2), partial hepatectomy (1).
Zhu 1998	25	Gastrointestinal bleeding (13), protein overload (6), infection (2), wounds (1), unknown (3).

n: number of participants.