Orthotopic liver transplantation for acute and subacute hepatic failure in adults

Abstract

The role of liver transplantation in 29 patients with fulminant and subacute hepatic failure due to a variety of different causes was examined by comparing the outcome and a variety of "hospitalization" variables. Transplanted patients (n = 13) were more likely to survive (p less than 0.05), were younger (p less than 0.05) and spent more time in the hospital (p less than 0.025) than did those who were not transplanted (n = 16). Despite spending a much longer time in the hospital, transplanted patients spent less time in the intensive care unit (p less than 0.05) in coma (p less than 0.01) and on a respirator (p less than 0.01) than did those not transplanted. Most importantly, the survival rate for transplanted patients was significantly improved (p less than 0.05) as compared to those not transplanted. We conclude that liver transplantation can be applied successfully to the difficult clinical problem of fulminant and subacute hepatic failure.

Fig. 1

Schematic outline of the hospital course of the 29 patients evaluated.

Fig. 2

Actuarial life table analysis of the 29 patients evaluated with acute fulminant and subacuk hepatic failure divided into two groups: those transplanted (closed squares) and those not transplanted (open circles).