Metastatic liver disease and fulminant hepatic failure: presentation of a case and review of the literature.
Although liver metastases are commonly found in cancer patients, fulminant hepatic failure (FHF) secondary to diffuse liver infiltration is rare. Furthermore, clinical presentation and laboratory findings are obscure and far from being pathognomonic for the disease. We report a case of a patient who died in the intensive care unit of our hospital from multiple organ failure syndrome secondary to FHF, as a result of liver infiltration from poorly differentiated small cell lung carcinoma. We also present the current knowledge about the clinical picture, laboratory findings and physical history of neoplastic liver-metastasis-induced FHF.
Athanasakis
Elias
E
Intensive Care Unit and Laboratory of Pathology, University Hospital of Heraklion, Heraklion, Crete, Greece.
Mouloudi
Eleni
E
Prinianakis
George
G
Kostaki
Maria
M
Tzardi
Maria
M
Georgopoulos
Dimitrios
D
D000368:Aged; D018288:Carcinoma, Small Cell / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D017093:Liver Failure / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000556:secondary*; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed