Muscle Cramps in Patients with Chronic Liver Disease

Lee, Kye Heui; Kim, Na Young; Ko, Young Hee; Ko, Jae Jung; Oh, Ju Hyun; Lee, Chang Gyun; Lim, Sun Hee

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Muscle cramp is a common clinical symptom in chronic liver disease. To determine the prevalence of musele cramps in patients with chronic liver disease in and to identify factors associated with their development, we conducted this study.
METHODS
We performed a cross-sectiona1 survey for 83 patients (three groups; 40 patients with liver cirrhosis, 23 patients with chronic hepatitis, 20 patients with congestive heart failure).
RESULTS
The prevalence of muscle cramps in cirrhotic patients was similar to the prevalence observed in the patients with chronic hepatitis [15/40 (37,5%) vs 7/23 (30.4%), p>0.05]. On the other hand, the prevalence observed in the patients with congestive heart failure [1/20 (5%), p<0,05] was much lower. Higher bilirubin level and female predominance were noted in cirrhotic patients with cramps. However, there was no significant difference in Child's class. The differences caused by age, gender, electrolytes, diuretics use and etiologies of chronic liver disease were not observed among chronic liver-disease patients with or without cramps. Most of muscle cramps (18/22; 82%) were relieved by conservative treatment.
CONCLUSIONS
Musele cramps in patients with chronic liver diseases were independent of etiologies of chronic liver diseases, diuretics use, serum electrolytes levels, differences in Child's class. Further research is needed to elucidate the mechanism of muscle cramp in chronic liver diseases.