ClinicalTrials.gg
RecruitingNCT04096014Updated Sep 25, 2026

Late Evening and Early Morning Protein Supplement to Reduce Readmissions for Hepatic Encephalopathy

An interventional study of Ensure Enlive and Standard Of Care in Hepatic Encephalopathy, sponsored by The Cleveland Clinic. Recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 75 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-09-25.

Sponsored by The Cleveland Clinic · Not applicable, Interventional, and Prevention

From the registry’s dates

  • Started Sep 2019; still recruiting 7 years 1 month later.
Updated Sep 25, 2026Primary completion movedStudy completion movedGo to Updates ↓
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
40
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years to 75 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Readmission rates for patients with hepatic encephalopathy due to end stage liver disease are high. Hyperammonemia contributes significantly to encephalopathy and occurs because of impaired hepatic ureagenesis and increased skeletal muscle proteolysis. We propose a randomized, 6-month nutritional intervention in cirrhotic patients who have had at least 1 admission for hepatic encephalopathy within the last 6 months. We hypothesize that a combination of late evening and early morning protein supplement (Ensure Enlive) will decrease recurrent hepatic encephalopathy and consequent readmission rates by lowering skeletal muscle proteolysis and improved lean body mass.

02

Conditions studied

  • Hepatic Encephalopathy
03

In context

Hepatic Encephalopathy

225 studies on the registry are indexed under Hepatic Encephalopathy; 53 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 40 is below the median of 60 across 154 interventional studies indexed under Hepatic Encephalopathy.

Browse Hepatic Encephalopathy studies →

Lead sponsor

The Cleveland Clinic is the lead sponsor of 831 studies on the registry; 119 are open to participants now.

Of its 90 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 73 (81%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 75 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • > 18 years of age
  • cirrhosis diagnosed by clinical history and liver and/or clinical, biochemical and imaging evidence of cirrhosis
  • at least 1 hospitalization for documented HE within the last 12 months.
  • abdominal CT scan anytime in the past

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patients with MELD score > 35
  • end stage organ failure (major dysfunction requiring organ support)
  • kidney injury defined by a creatinine > 2 mg/dl or rise in creatinine by 0.5 gm/dl from baseline that is unresponsive to withholding diuretics and intravenous albumin administration (1 gm/kg up to 100 gm/day)
  • active
  • uncontrolled diabetes mellitus with A1c>9.5 (to avoid altered muscle protein metabolism
  • medications (anabolic steroids, ) that affect skeletal muscle mass
  • recent gastrointestinal surgery within past 12 months
  • ongoing infection (positive blood or other body fluid cultures)
  • active gastrointestinal bleeding.
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(3)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Biopsy and archival tissue

A biopsy takes a small piece of tissue to examine. “Archival tissue” is a sample already taken, for example at diagnosis, and kept by the hospital.

Whether a stored sample will do depends on when it was taken, how much there is and what the study needs. Ask whether the study accepts your stored sample or needs a new biopsy.

Cancer (malignancy)

Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.

Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.

Corticosteroids (steroids)

Anti-inflammatory medicines such as prednisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone — not the anabolic steroids used for muscle.

Studies differ in what they allow: check which steroid medicines, routes (tablets, injections, creams, inhalers, eye drops) and doses this study accepts.

05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Prevention
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Single (Investigator)
Enrollment
40 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Active comparator
    Ensure Enlive

    Dietary Supplement: Ensure Enlive · Other: Standard Of Care

  • Placebo comparator
    Standard of Care

    Other: Standard Of Care

Interventions

  • Dietary supplementEnsure Enlive

    The subjects in the intervention group will receive two Ensure Enlive supplements per day for 180 days.

  • OtherStandard Of Care

    The subjects in the Standard of care group will continue to receive the standard clinical therapy.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Determine if decreasing nocturnal fasting by protein supplements will change readmission rates.

    Change in number of readmissions

    Time frame: Day 0 & Day 180

07

Study locations

1 of 1 sites recruiting
08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

09

Timeline

1 registry update since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reachedDate before it movedWhere the date was before it movedSimilar studies: half by the dot; the band is the middle halfHalf of similar studies reached it by the dot; the band is the middle half, from a quarter to three quarters

Started Sep 2019 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Jun 2027, 93 months after the start.

Of 25 interventional studies with no phase under Hepatic Encephalopathy, half reached primary completion within 32 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 15 and three quarters within 72. This study's planned 93 months is above that.

Since we started tracking on Sep 25, 2026, the dates moved once, on Sep 25, 2026: primary completion Jun 2026 → Jun 2027 and completion Oct 2026 → Oct 2028.

Earlier changes are on the record history on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Sep 11, 2019
First posted
Sep 19, 2019
StartActual
Sep 16, 2019
Primary completionEst.
Jun 30, 2027was Jun 2026
CompletionEst.
Oct 30, 2028was Oct 2026
Last update
Sep 25, 2026
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
Primary completion
Jun 30, 2026→Jun 30, 2027
Sep 25, 2026
Study completion
Oct 30, 2026→Oct 30, 2028
Sep 25, 2026
Show all 1 update
  1. Sep 25, 2026
    Primary completion Jun 30, 2026→Jun 30, 2027
    Study completion Oct 30, 2026→Oct 30, 2028
    + 1 other change: verification date

From the registry record's own update history. This site started tracking changes on Sep 25, 2026; for anything earlier, see the record history on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT04096014
Responsible party
Srinivasan Dasarathy (Staff Physician, The Cleveland Clinic) — Principal investigator
First posted
Sep 19, 2019
Start date
Sep 16, 2019
Primary completion
Jun 30, 2027 (estimated)
Completion
Oct 30, 2028 (estimated)
Last update
Sep 25, 2026

Study contacts

Annette C Bellar
Contact
bellara@ccf.org
2166365247 ext. 2166365247

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Interested in this study?

Eligibility is decided by the study team. Share this record with your doctor or contact the team directly.

Contact study team

Follow this study

Get an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.

Sign in to follow

Discussion

Questions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.

Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.

Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.

Start the discussion