Fallo hepático agudo en un hospital universitario: revisión de 20 casos en los últimos siete años

Acute liver failure (ALF) is a medical emergency which entails a multisistemic affectation almost always. Twenty cases of ALF have been reviewed in a teaching hospital with active liver transplantation programme. A high percentage of patients with alcohol abuse was observed although these patients did not have previously known hepatic damage. Although microbiological, toxicological and anatomopatological studies were performed in all cases, an important difficulty for establishing the etiologic agent was observed. We observed a worse prognosis in those patients older than 40, those with grade IV encephalophat y and those that did not undergo a liver transplantation. Most patients needed UCI attention and more than half died.