UMEM Educational Pearls

Title: Spontaneous Bacterial Peritonitis

Posted: 9/20/2011 by Mike Winters, MBA, MD
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Spontaneous Bacterial Peritonitis

Critically ill patients with end-stage liver disease (ESLD) may be some of the sickest patients you'll ever manage.
Recall that patients with ESLD have higher rates of infection and worse outcomes.
Always consider spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) in the sick patient with ESLD. In fact, SBP is the most common infection in ESLD patients.
Physician impression alone has been repeatedly shown to be inaccurate in ruling out SBP.
In the critically ill patient with ESLD and ascites, tap the belly!

Al-Khafaji A, Huang DT. Critical care management of patients with end-stage liver disease. Crit Care Med 2011; 39:1157-66.