A noninvasive test is needed to assess the severity of encephalopathy during fulminant hepatic failure. This feasibility study was designed to compare a noninvasive test, brain lactate measurement by magnetic resonance spectroscopy, with intracranial pressure monitoring in a large animal model of fulminant hepatic failure. Five dogs received an intraventricular catheter for intracranial pressur...

A 54 year old Asian woman developed fulminant hepatic failure followed by renal failure. Because of a past history of possible tuberculosis, she was given antituberculous drugs. The chest x ray was normal. A transjugular liver biopsy showed caseating necrosis, granulomas, and acid fast bacilli indicative of miliary tuberculosis. Despite full supportive therapy, her condition deteriorated and sh...

Circulating immune complexes were found in 15 of 16 patients with fulminant hepatic failure due to viral hepatitis and all of six patients who had had halothane anaesthesia; however, they were found in only five of 32 patients with paracetamol-induced hepatic necrosis. The levels of circulating immune complexes were not related to the severity of the clinical course, development of renal failur...

Autoimmune hepatitis initially presenting as fulminant hepatic failure is rare in clinical practice. Although corticosteroid is considered as a good therapeutic agent in treating autoimmune hepatitis in the literature, the effect of corticosteroid in treating fulminant autoimmune hepatitis is still controversial. Because corticosteroid therapy for fulminant autoimmune hepatitis can sometimes ov...

In considering a patient in liver failure it is important to distinguish between fulminant hepatic failure (FHF) and episodes of acute hepatic decompensation in patients suffering from chronic liver disease (CLD), as the basis for treatment differs. Fulminant hepatic failure has been defined by Trey and Davidson (1970) as encephalopathy developing within 8 weeks of the onset of symptoms in a pa...

The objective of this study was to develop an experimental animal model of fulminant hepatic failure to test the efficacy of the bioartificial liver system. The portal vein and the hepatic artery were clamped intermittently and then the hepatic artery was ligated (ligation group, n=5). Pigs whose hepatic arteries were not ligated after clamping were assigned to the non-ligation group (n=5). The...