Statin therapy in chronic viral hepatitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis of nine studies with 195,602 participants

Abstract

AbstractBackground Conflicting data suggest that statins could cause chronic liver disease in certain group of patients, while improving prognosis in those with chronic viral hepatitis (CVH).Purpose To quantify the potential protective role of statins on some main liver-related health outcomes in clinical studies on CVH patients.Data Sources: The search strategy was explored by a medical librarian using bibliographic databases, from January 2015 to April 2020.Data synthesis: The results showed no significant difference in the risk of mortality between statin users and non-users in the overall analysis. However, the risk of mortality significantly reduced by 39% in statin users who were followed for more than three years. Moreover, the risk of HCC, fibrosis, and cirrhosis in those on statins decreased by 53%, 45% and 41%, respectively. Although ALT and AST reduced slightly following statin therapy, this reduction was not statistically significant.Limitations A significant heterogeneity among studies was observed, resulting from differences in clinical characteristics between statin users and non-users, study designs, population samples, diseases stage, comorbidities, and confounding covariates.Conclusion Not only long-term treatment with statins seems to be safe in patients affected by hepatitis, but also it significantly improves their prognosis.

Keywords

• Statins
• liver
• hepatitis
• fibrosis
• prognosis