Introduction Minimal hepatic encephalopathy (MHE) is a subtle cognitive impairment in patients with cirrhosis or porto-systemic shunts in the absence of abnormalities in standard neurological examination. The diagnosis of MHE has always taken a back seat in the evaluation of patients with cirrhosis primarily due to the fact that it is time consuming and not well validated. However, the prognostic importance of MHE cannot be understated as it has been found to affect motor skills like driving and timely treatment does improve quality of life and progression to overt encephalopathy (OHE).

Objective To estimate the prevalence of minimal hepatic encephalopathy in a sequential population of cirrhotic patients admitted in the gastroenterology ward at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.

Methods 26 patients with a diagnosis of cirrhosis admitted over a 3 week period were included in the study. All patients with overt encephalopathy and sepsis were excluded from the study. The psychometric hepatic encephalopathy score (PHES) was used to assess the patients at the bedside. This comprises of a standardised battery of five paper–pencil psychometric tests: number connexion test A, number connexion test B, the digit symbol test, the line tracing test (time and errors) and the serial dotting test. Minimal hepatic encephalopathy can be diagnosed when the psychometric hepatic encephalopathy score is less than -5. This score can be easily obtained by inputting data in an online tool (http://www.redeh.org/phesapp/datosE.html).

Results The mean age of the selected cirrhotic patients was 59 ± 2.8 years and 74.1% were male. The commonest aetiology of cirrhosis was alcohol related liver disease (62.9%). 33.3% of patients were Child’s A, 44.4% were Child’s B and 22.3% were Child’s C. The mean MELD score was 16.5 ± 9.2. The median PHES score was 1 (Range -10 to 2). Of the 26 patients evaluated, 7 patients were diagnosed to have MHE (25.9%). The prevalence varied with the Child’s stage, 11.1% in Child’s A, 25% in Child’s B and 60% of Child’s C patients. All patients diagnosed with MHE were commenced on Lactulose.

Conclusion Hospitalised patients with cirrhosis have a significant prevalence of MHE which is proportional to the stage of the liver disease. Prompt identification and treatment of this cohort will help in preventing them from progressing to overt encephalopathy.

Disclosure of Interest None Declared.