title: Nutritional support in liver failure.
abstract: The most important manifestations of advanced liver disease are malnutrition, encephalopathy, and hepatorenal syndrome. Appropriate and optimal nutritional and metabolic support with specially formulated solutions enriched in branched-chain amino acids, together with other advanced treatments such as plasmapheresis, hemofiltration, and continuous arteriovenous hemodialysis, can correct the most important metabolic and clinical aberrations and temporarily improve the quality of life. However, the ultimately poor prognosis of patients with severe liver failure has not been altered significantly to date by the provision of nonspecific or specifically tailored nutrient regimens. The prognosis appears to depend on the arrest, correction, or reversal of the primary pathophysiologic process.
authors.affiliation: Hermann Hospital, Houston, Texas.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Latifi
authors.forename: R W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Killam
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Dudrick
mesh_terms: D004750:Enteral Nutrition; D006501:Hepatic Encephalopathy / Q000628:therapy; D006530:Hepatorenal Syndrome / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000628:therapy*; D015596:Nutrition Assessment; D009748:Nutrition Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D010288:Parenteral Nutrition