Bellos I, et al. - Because tolvaptan is an oral V₂ receptor antagonist suggested as a promising additional diuretic treatment for refractory ascites, researchers have accumulated current evidence and identified which clinical and laboratory factors are associated with short-term tolvaptan therapy responses. For this meta-analysis, they selected all observational studies reporting the correlation of patients' features with tolvaptan response. Findings suggested an association of tolvaptan response with significantly higher baseline body weight, presence of hepatitis C, lower blood urea nitrogen (BUN), lower serum creatinine, lower C-reactive protein, and higher sodium levels. The results of body weight, hepatitis C, BUN, and C-reactive protein persisted to be important regardless of response definition and risk of bias. Therefore, in patients with refractory ascites, potential predictive factors of tolvaptan short-term response were concluded to be bodyweight, BUN, C-reactive protein and hepatitis C. Furthermore, to incorporate cut-off values and build an optimal combined screening model, future researches are required.