Rifaximin microbial resistance and its efficacy and safety as a secondary prophylaxis of hepatic encephalopathy in patients with hepatitis C virus‐related cirrhosis

Background and aim Rifaximin is an oral antibiotic with promising efficacy in the reduction of hepatic encephalopathy (HE) recurrence. Development of microbial resistance to rifaximin is not studied yet in HE. The study aim was to assess the microbial resistance, safety and efficacy of rifaximin as secondary prophylaxis of HE. Method In this open‐label parallel, prospective interventional study, 100 patients were randomly allocated either to receive 400 mg rifaximin 3 times/d plus 30‐45 mL lactulose 3 times/d (intervention group) or to receive the standard of care only which is lactulose alone (control group) for 6 months. The primary outcome of the study was the difference between minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of rifaximin among the two studied groups at the end of treatment. The secondary outcomes included the time to first episode of HE, time to first hospitalisation, and patient's survival. Results The MIC did not differ significantly after treatment exposure compared with baseline either between groups or within the same group. The time to new episode of HE was 18.84 ± 6.49 weeks (mean ± SD) in the intervention group and was significantly longer (P = .002) than that in the control group 14 ± 7.52 weeks. Moreover, only 23 (46%) patients developed overt HE in the intervention group compared with 35 patients (70%) in the control group (P = .005). Also, there was an observed 32% reduction in the risk of hospitalisation in intervention group compared with control group. Conclusion Rifaximin succeeded to maintain remission from new episodes of HE in hepatitis C virus cirrhotic patients with limited potential for development of microbial resistance over the study period. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04736836.