What e complications of alcoholic hepatitis?
infusion of pharmaceutical agents that lower the pressure within the portal system (somatostatin or one of its long-acting analogues, eg, octreotide). Alternatively and for patients who continue to bleed in spite of interventional endoscopy and drug therapy, more invasive options, such as balloon tamponade, transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt, and emergency portal-caval shunt, may be used. Hepatic encephalopathy: The development of encephalopathy in patients with alcoholic hepatitis is invariably associated with a grave prognosis. Treatment consists of close monitoring of the patient and the administration of lactulose or nonabsorbable antibiotics. Low energy or protein intake is not indicated, except transiently in severe cases. The use of benzodiazepine receptor antagonists (ie, flumazenil [Romazicon]) is still at an experimental stage. Rarely, rapidly progressive worsening of encephalopathy leading to deep coma may be associated with cerebral edema, as observed in fulminan
