Malnutrition is one of the most common complications associated with liver cirrhosis, which is more likely to occur in patients with decompensated liver cirrhosis. Malnutrition will further lead to muscle loss, that is, the occurrence of myomyositis, which is an important cause of adverse outcome in patients with liver cirrhosis. it is associated with increased risk of death, portal hypertension-related complications, increased infection rates and longer hospital stays. At the same time, liver cirrhosis with portal hypertension leads to esophageal and gastric varices and intestinal mucosal edema, which affects the function of the digestive system and poses a greater challenge to the nutritional maintenance of patients with liver cirrhosis. Therefore, timely nutritional assessment and early intervention decision-making on admission is an important aspect of clinical management of patients with liver cirrhosis.
For the screening of malnutrition in patients with liver cirrhosis, the commonly used screening tools are MST, MUST, NRS-2002, RFH-NPT and so on. For the screened high-risk population, further specific nutritional assessment is needed, there are four main types. The first is a diet-related assessment conducted by a professional dietitian. The second is the body composition analysis represented by muscle mass, such as bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), CT, ultrasound and so on. The third is the functional evaluation, of which the more common are five-meter walking speed and grip strength test. The fourth is part of the comprehensive evaluation tools, represented by SGA and RFH-SGA.
