Acute-on-Chronic Liver Failure: A Portuguese Single-Center Reference Review

• Main Authors: Miguel Verdelho, Rui Perdigoto, João Machado, Élia Mateus, Paulo Marcelino, Rui Pereira, Philip Fortuna, Luís Bagulho, Luís Bento, Francisco Ribeiro, Fernando Nolasco, Américo Martins, Eduardo Barroso
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Karger Publishers 2017-08-01
• Series: GE: Portuguese Journal of Gastroenterology
• Subjects: Acute-on-chronic liver failure; Hepatic transplant; Multi-organ failure; Acute kidney injury
• Online Access: http://www.karger.com/Article/FullText/478988

Acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) is a syndrome characterized by an acute deterioration of a patient with cirrhosis, frequently associated with multi-organ failure and a high short-term mortality rate. We present a retrospective study that aims to characterize the presentation, evolution, and outcome of patients diagnosed with ACLF at our center over the last 3 years, with a comparative analysis between the group of patients that had ACLF precipitated by infectious insults of bacterial origin and the group of those with ACLF triggered by a nonbacterial infectious insult; the incidence of acute kidney injury and its impact on the prognosis of ACLF was also analyzed. Twenty-nine patients were enrolled, the majority of them being male (89.6%), and the mean age was 53 years. Fourteen patients (48.3%) developed ACLF due to a bacterial infectious event, and 9 of them died (64.2%, overall mortality rate 31%); however, no statistical significance was found (p p p p p p Conclusions: ACLF is a heterogeneous syndrome with a variety of precipitant factors and different grades of extrahepatic involvement. Most cases will have some degree of renal dysfunction, with an increased risk of mortality. Hepatic transplant is an efficient form of therapy for this syndrome.