[Fulminant hepatic insufficiency]

Abstract

We studied the patients admitted to the Intensive Medicine Department of the "Carlos Haya" Regional Hospital of Málaga (Spain) with a diagnosis of fulminant liver failure (IHF) between 1980 and October 1986. There were 7 patients, 6 women and one man: 5 had a picture of fulminant hepatitis, one pregnant female had fatty liver, and the man had fulminant hepatitis due to accidental inhalation of carbon tetrachloride. The average age of the group was 32 years. Six patients (85%) died; their average stay was 4.6 days, ranging from 10 hours to 7 days. The woman who survived spent 17 days in the unit. Postmortem studies were made in 4 patients. In the pregnant patient with fatty liver, 36 weeks gestation, a cesarean was performed and a live female fetus of 2,720 g. weight was extracted. Some pathogenic aspects of the disease are discussed, such as the incidence of superinfection by other viruses (delta virus), the influence of immunological factors on the development of fulminant liver failure, morphological findings, therapeutic results and the need for multicenter studies.