All patients admitted to the University of Virginia Health system who have clinically or pathologically defined cirrhosis, laboratory evidence consistent with spontaneous bacterial peritonitis and clinically or radiologically accessible ascites will be screened for participation in this prospective,randomized, double-blinded, controlled trial. All patients agreeing to participate will be treated with the standard of care antibiotic and supportive therapy and will be randomized to one of two treatment regimens. Treatment arm one will consist of human albumin, 1.5 g/kg intravenously administered at the time of enrollment and 1.0 g/kg administered on day three after enrollment. Treatment arm two will consist of dextran 70, 1.0 g/kg intravenously daily for three days. Under separate informed consent from the therapeutic portion of the study, all participants will be offered enrollment into the tissue repository and prospective outcomes database. Upon consent to enroll in the repository and database, serum, ascites, and urine will be collected from participating subjects for storage and future evaluation of inflammatory and pathophysiologic factors contributing to the morbidity and mortality of SBP and HRS. Prospectively collected clinical and outcomes data will be recorded into a perpetual electronic database for future comprehensive outcomes and translational studies. Participation in either the tissue repository or perpetual clinical database will not be compulsory to enroll in the therapeutic or prophylaxis trials. Similarly, subjects can choose not be enrolled in either the database or tissue repository.