Epidemiology of Acute Liver Failure from a Regional Liver Transplant Center in Portugal

Acute liver failure (ALF) is a rare disease with potentially high mortality rates. We aimed to study the recent epidemiology of ALF in one of the Portuguese liver transplant (LT) regions.

We assessed a retrospective cohort including 34 consecutive patients with ALF admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) of Curry Cabral Hospital (Lisbon, Portugal) between October 2013 and December 2016.

The median age (IQR) was 49 (31-67) years, and 21 (62%) of the cohort were female. Non-paracetamol etiologies were found in 29 patients (85%). On ICU admission, grade 3-4 hepatic encephalopathy developed in 10 patients (29%); invasive mechanical ventilation, vasopressors, and renal replacement therapy were required for 8 (24%), 7 (21%), and 5 (15%) of the patients, respectively; the King's College criteria (KCC) were fulfilled by 16 patients (47%). Of the 15 (44%) nontransplanted patients, 11 (73%) died during their hospital stay. Of the 19 (56%) transplanted patients, 4 (21%) died during their hospital stay. KCC were not associated with hospital mortality (p = 0.97), but they were significantly associated with LT (p = 0.008).

In a Portuguese cohort of patients with ALF, non-paracetamol etiologies were predominant. Hospital mortality was much lower amongst transplanted patients.