Successful liver transplantation and delivery in a woman with fulminant hepatic failure occurring during the second trimester of pregnancy.
BACKGROUND
Severe liver dysfunction occurring during pregnancy is an unusual but dramatic event that poses special technical and ethical issues because it involves two lives.


RESULTS
We report the case of a 35-year-old woman with cryptogenic fulminant hepatic failure who underwent successful orthotopic liver transplantation at 22 weeks of pregnancy. After a relatively uneventful post-operative course she delivered a normal offspring at the 27th week of gestation. There were no obstetrical complications and neonatal outcome was excellent. After a year of follow-up, the patient is doing well,and the newborn has exhibited normal psychomotor and weight/height development.


CONCLUSIONS
This case illustrates the challenge of treating fulminant hepatic failure during pregnancy and demonstrates that liver transplantation is a feasible therapeutic option for treatment of patients with this condition, allowing successful completion of pregnancy.
Jarufe
Nicolás
N
Unidad de Higado y Departament de Gastroenterologia, Escuela de Medicina, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Santiago, Chile.
Soza
Alejandro
A
Pérez-Ayuso
Rosa María
RM
Poblete
José Andrés
JA
González
Robinson
R
Guajardo
Matías
M
Hernandez
Verónica
V
Riquelme
Arnoldo
A
Arrese
Marco
M
Martínez
Jorge
J
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005323:Fetal Monitoring / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D017114:Liver Failure, Acute / Q000601:surgery*; D016031:Liver Transplantation / Q000941:ethics / Q000379:methods*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000601:surgery*; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D011262:Pregnancy Trimester, Second