HEAL STUDY (Hepatic Encephalopathy and Albumin Study)

"Intravenous 25% albumin infusion 1.0 g/kg body weight (maximum 100gm) once a week for five weeks for a maximum of 5 infusions. These infusions will be administered over sixty minutes per clinical treatment protocols for this population. Patients and investigators will be blinded as to the characteristic of the infusion. Pre-infusion serum albumin will be checked and if \>4.0gm/dl, then normal saline will be given instead as mentioned in the blinding section above. Samples will be collected before and one hour after the infusion for all patients.~The total grams of albumin infused over the 4 weeks during and outside the study will be collected and compared between groups."

"Normal saline infusion 1.0g/kg body weight once a week for five weeks for a maximum of 5 infusions. These infusions will be administered over sixty minutes per clinical treatment protocols for this population. Patients and investigators will be blinded as to the characteristic of the infusion. Pre-infusion serum albumin will be checked and if \>4.0gm/dl, then normal saline will be given instead as mentioned in the blinding section above. Samples will be collected before and one hour after the infusion for all patients.~The total grams of albumin infused over the 4 weeks during and outside the study will be collected and compared between groups."