Clinical trials assessing zinc supplementation in liver diseases do not show benefits in terms of clinical improvement or disease halting .
There are possible benefits of zinc supplementation on hepatic encephalopathy , however , this is based on limited evidence .
INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES Zinc deficiency has been associated with poor prognosis in chronic liver disease .
This systematic review and meta- analysis aim ed to evaluate the role of zinc supplementation in the management of chronic liver diseases .
Zinc supplementation therapy improves the outcome of patients with chronic hepatitis C
We administered zinc supplementation therapy over three years to patients with chronic hepatitis C and reported and that the aspartate aminotransferase ( AST ) and alanine aminotaransferase ( ALT ) levels decreased , and platelet counts increased , significantly in the group with increased serum zinc concentrations . We are continuing this treatment to clarify the long-term consequences and report here the changes in serum zinc concentrations over seven years and compare the cumulative incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma ( HCC ) . We administered polaprezinc to 32 patients , r and omly selected for zinc therapy ( treatment group ) , while another 30 formed the control group . We measured the serum zinc and albumin concentrations and conducted a prospect i ve study to determine long-term outcomes . The changes and rates of change of serum zinc concentrations after seven years were 76.7 ± 18.2 µg/dl and + 0.302 ± 0.30 % in the treatment group and 56.7 ± 12.4 µg/dl and + 0.033 ± 0.21 % in the control group and had increased significantly ( p = 0.0002 , p = 0.0036 ) . Progression of liver disease seemed to vary , depending on serum albumin concentrations . In the group with baseline serum albumin concentrations of 4.0 g/dl or more , the change and rate of change of serum zinc concentrations increased significantly , and the cumulative incidence of HCC tended to decrease , in the treated group . According to multivariate analysis , the factors that contribute to a reduction in the incidence of HCC are  zinc therapy ( risk ratio : 0.113 , 95 % CI : 0.015–0.870 , p = 0.0362 ) , and platelet counts ( 0.766 , 0.594–0.989 , 0.0409 ) . Zinc supplementation therapy seems to improve liver pathology and reduce the incidence of HCC
Clinical trials assessing zinc supplementation in liver diseases do not show benefits in terms of clinical improvement or disease halting .
There are possible benefits of zinc supplementation on hepatic encephalopathy , however , this is based on limited evidence .
INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES Zinc deficiency has been associated with poor prognosis in chronic liver disease .
This systematic review and meta- analysis aim ed to evaluate the role of zinc supplementation in the management of chronic liver diseases .