title: Acute liver failure in infancy: a 14-year experience of a pediatric liver transplantation center.
abstract: Clinical charts of 80 infants younger than 1 year who presented over a 14-year period (1986 to 2000) with acute liver failure (ALF), defined as prolonged prothrombin time greater than 17 seconds and decrease of clotting factor V plasma level below 50% of normal, were reviewed retrospectively. The main causes of ALF were inherited metabolic disorders in 42.5% of cases, including mitochondrial respiratory chain disorders in 17, type I hereditary tyrosinemia in 12, and urea cycle disorders in 2; neonatal hemochromatosis in 16% of cases; and acute viral hepatitis in 15% of cases (hepatitis B in 6, herpes virus type 6 in 4, and herpes simplex virus type 1 in 2). The cause of ALF remained undetermined in 16% of cases. A total of 19 (24%) infants survived without orthotopic liver transplantation; 38 (47%) infants died from sepsis, multiple organ failure, or because the underlying disease contraindicated orthotopic liver transplantation (12 [15%] infants), and 23 (29%) infants underwent orthotopic liver transplantation within 12 months from onset, 12 of whom are alive with a mean follow-up period of 5.2 years from orthotopic liver transplantation. We conclude that ALF during the first year of life is a severe condition with poor prognosis, despite the advent of liver transplantation.
authors.affiliation: Services de Réanimation, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, Université Paris-Sud, Hopital de Bicêtre, 94275 Le Kremlin Bicêtre, France.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Durand
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Debray
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mandel
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Baujard
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Branchereau
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gauthier
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Jacquemin
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Devictor
mesh_terms: D006776:Hospitals, Pediatric; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D017114:Liver Failure, Acute / Q000401:mortality* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*; D016031:Liver Transplantation; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome