The Prognostic Significance of Handgrip Strength in Cirrhosis: Simplicity Is the Ultimate Sophistication

ABSTRACT Cirrhosis serves as the final stage of various chronic liver damage, accounting for around one million deaths annually in the world. Given the clinical significance and the imperative to relieve this social as well as healthcare burden in relation to cirrhosis, a prompt and accurate evaluation of its prognostication is of the essence. In the recent years, the assessment of handgrip strength (HGS) concerning its prognostic utility among patients with cirrhosis has received intensive attention and increasing interest. Notably, the advantages to measure HGS are simple, convenient, noninvasive, cost‐effective, and easy to be widely carried out during daily clinical practice. Mounting evidence demonstrates that muscle strength measured by HGS is a feasible and reliable metric to evaluate nutritional status, as well as relevant cirrhosis‐related complications and mortality. Given the current lack of a landscape pertinent to prognostic performance of HGS in the context of cirrhosis, we conducted a narrative review on the predictive value of HGS in patients with cirrhosis. The validity and reliability of this metric for prognostication among cirrhosis have been comprehensively summarized, to improve the integral management and tailored therapy.