title: [Acute hepatic failure as the presenting manifestation of a metastatic lung carcinoma to liver].
abstract: Liver failure as a result of neoplasia is a rare event before the terminal stage of the illness. We report a 66-year-old man who presented with clinical features of acute liver failure as the initial manifestation of a small-cell lung carcinoma. Liver was enlarged without ascitis. Abdominal CT-scan revealed a massive hepatomegaly with multiple low-density wedge-shaped lesions. The patient developed stage 3 hepatic encephalopathy and died on day 4. The diagnosis was obtained with post-mortem study. A Medline search of acute liver failure due to small-cell carcinoma identified only 17 cases already published, with a universally poor prognosis.
authors.affiliation: Fédération de médecine-III, hôpital d'instruction des armées Clermont-Tonnerre, BP 41, Brest-Naval, France.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Richecoeur
authors.forename: M-P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Massoure
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Le Coadou
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Lipovac
authors.forename: J-A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Bronstein
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Delluc