Reviewer's report
Title:MELD score and antibiotics use are predictors of length of stay in patients
hospitalized with hepatic encephalopathy
Version:1Date:1 August 2014
Reviewer: Shahin Merat
Reviewer's report:
The authors have retrospectively studied the files of over 300 subjects with
hepatic encephalopathy in order to find risk factors for longer hospital stay.
The information is useful and nicely presented. nevertheless I have a few
comments.
1. The authors have used % change in hospital stay to express differences. This
is not a common way of reporting hospital stay. Usually number of days reduced
is reported. It took me some time to notice what these percents mean. The
authors should explain in methods that results are reported as % change in
hospital stay and preferably explain why they preferred % over the more common
# of days.
2. In the text when talking about comparisons the authors should also mention
the mean (or median) values. eg "patients hospitalized specifically for HE had a
significantly shorter length of stay (4 vs. 13 days, 55.5% decrease; p<0.001)".
This would make the numbers much more understandable.
Level of interest: An article of limited interest
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: Yes, but I do not feel adequately qualified to assess the
statistics.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
Reviewer's report
Title:MELD score and antibiotics use are predictors of length of stay in patients
hospitalized with hepatic encephalopathy
Version:1Date:1 August 2014
Reviewer: Shahin Merat
Reviewer's report:
The authors have retrospectively studied the files of over 300 subjects with
hepatic encephalopathy in order to find risk factors for longer hospital stay.
The information is useful and nicely presented. nevertheless I have a few
comments.
1. The authors have used % change in hospital stay to express differences. This
is not a common way of reporting hospital stay. Usually number of days reduced
is reported. It took me some time to notice what these percents mean. The
authors should explain in methods that results are reported as % change in
hospital stay and preferably explain why they preferred % over the more common
# of days.
2. In the text when talking about comparisons the authors should also mention
the mean (or median) values. eg "patients hospitalized specifically for HE had a
significantly shorter length of stay (4 vs. 13 days, 55.5% decrease; p<0.001)".
This would make the numbers much more understandable.
Level of interest: An article of limited interest
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: Yes, but I do not feel adequately qualified to assess the
statistics.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
Please review this paper.
user
Reviewer's report
Title:MELD score and antibiotics use are predictors of length of stay in patients
hospitalized with hepatic encephalopathy
Version:1Date:1 August 2014
Reviewer: Shahin Merat
Reviewer's report:
The authors have retrospectively studied the files of over 300 subjects with
hepatic encephalopathy in order to find risk factors for longer hospital stay.
The information is useful and nicely presented. nevertheless I have a few
comments.
1. The authors have used % change in hospital stay to express differences. This
is not a common way of reporting hospital stay. Usually number of days reduced
is reported. It took me some time to notice what these percents mean. The
authors should explain in methods that results are reported as % change in
hospital stay and preferably explain why they preferred % over the more common
# of days.
2. In the text when talking about comparisons the authors should also mention
the mean (or median) values. eg "patients hospitalized specifically for HE had a
significantly shorter length of stay (4 vs. 13 days, 55.5% decrease; p<0.001)".
This would make the numbers much more understandable.
Level of interest: An article of limited interest
Quality of written English: Acceptable
Statistical review: Yes, but I do not feel adequately qualified to assess the
statistics.
Declaration of competing interests:
I declare that I have no competing interests
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