The New England journal of medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Short-term and long-term survival in patients with alcoholic hepatitis treated with oxandrolone and prednisolone.
A cooperative study was conducted to determine the efficacy of 30 days of treatment with either a glucocorticosteroid (prednisolone) or an anabolic steroid (oxandrolone) in moderate or severe alcoholic hepatitis. One hundred thirty-two patients with moderate disease and 131 with severe disease were randomly assigned to one of three treatments: prednisolone, oxandrolone, or placebo. During the 30 days, mortality in the groups receiving steroid therapy was not significantly different from mortality in the placebo group. ⋯ Although neither steroid improved short-term survival, oxandrolone therapy was associated with a beneficial effect on long-term survival. This was especially true in patients with moderate disease: among those who survived for one or two months after the start of treatment the conditional six-month death rate was 3.5 per cent after oxandrolone and 19 to 20 per cent after placebo (P = 0.02). No consistent long-term effect was associated with prednisolone therapy.