Liver disease afflicts over 600 million people worldwide, 30 million of whom are Americans. Liver disease leads to the death of over 40,000 individuals in the United States every year. Liver failure can be generally separated into two major categories: fulminant hepatic failure, also referred to as acute liver failure, and chronic hepatic failure resulting from chronic end-stage liver disorders...

Mortality rates for fulminant hepatic failure range between 50% and 90%. Several independent factors influence survival: age, etiology, depth and duration of the encephalopathy, and prevention of complications. The main causes of fulminant hepatic failure are hepatotropic viruses, adverse drug effects, and toxins (Table 1). All major hepatotropic viruses can induce fulminant hepatic failure. We...

A 64-year-old woman, with amyloid related kidney failure (On renal dialysis) had a bone scan because of pain in the right upper femur. The 99m Tc-MDP images revealed marked hepatic uptake. In addition, there was right proximal femoral concentration of radiotracer, which corresponded to a fracture site. As an added finding, the same femor demonstrated circumferential uptake at the lower po...

BACKGROUND Liver transplantation is the treatment of choice for both acute and chronic hepatic failure. GSTs family is one of the most important genes in phase II detoxification interfering with the xenobiotics and free radical metabolism. GSTO2 (N142D) is a member of this family the polymorphism of which may influence the metabolism of active components and free radicals and may contribute to ...

The pharmacokinetic profile of atracurium was studied in normal patients and in patients with renal failure, renal-hepatic failure, or hepatic disease. Its short elimination half-life was not significantly altered by renal failure, but in patients with severe liver disease elimination of its metabolites was prolonged, necessitating care during long-term i.v. infusions in patients with hepatic d...

The occurrence of hepatotoxicity following etanercept (tumor necrosis factor-alpha antagonist) prescription, has been studied well. However, an acute hepatic failure leading to liver transplant as an adverse effect of this drug has not been reported in the literature. In this article, we are going to present a case of acute liver failure followed by liver transplantation, in a 32 years old man ...

Fuliinant hepatic failure has one of the highest mortalities among medical diseases-r82% in the first 318 patients reported from centres throughout the world to the Fulminant Hepatic Failure Surveillance (F.H.F.S.) study.The problem of fulminant hepatic failure is also being forcibly drawn to medical and public attention in this country by the continuing outbreaks of severe hepatitis in renal d...

Acute hepatic failure is characterized by jaundice and hepatic encephalopathy within eight weeks after the onset of disease. Although acute hepatic failure is a rare occurrence, its rapid progression and high mortality (50 to 90%, depending on the etiology of disease) necessitate immediate intervention. In the absence of causal therapy, orthotopic liver transplantation is currently the only def...