ABSTRACT

Malnutrition with muscle wasting is a common complication in patients with liver cirrhosis (Tables 14.1 and 14.2). Reported prevalence from large cross-sectional studies ranges from approximately 30% to more than 50%, depending on the criteria used for the assessment of malnutrition (Norman et al., 2008a). There is evidence that malnutrition already occurs in the early stages of the disease but becomes more frequent with the progression of cirrhosis (Peng et al., 2007). Malnutrition in liver cirrhosis is mainly characterized by reduced visceral (lower plasma levels of albumin) as well as somatic protein deciency, manifested by, for example, decreased muscle and body cell mass (Peng et al., 2007; Pirlich et al., 2000) and accompanied

by muscle weakness (Peng et al., 2007) as well as impaired quality of life (Norman et al., 2006) (Table 14.3).