[Progress of acute liver failure and indications for liver transplantation]

To analyse the course of acute liver failure and the indications for liver transplantation.

In 16 patients who developed acute liver failure between July 1992 and July 1997 the indications for liver transplantation and total survival time were analysed retrospectively.

Intensive medical care (ventilation, dialysis) was necessary in 60% of the patients to bridge organ failure until liver transplantation. In 14 patients liver transplantation was indicated. Eleven of the patients, with a minimal Quick value of less than 10%, presented with the prognostically poorest London criteria. In two patients the combination of three additional criteria of the London classification led to liver transplantation being indicated. In one patient with Wilson's disease the transplantation was undertaken despite good clotting factor synthesis, because an encephalopathy occurred. In two patients liver transplantation was not undertaken even though indicated, in one because liver functions improved, in the other because necrotizing pancreatitis had occurred. In another patient, who had been poisoned by eating the mushroom Amanita phalloides, the attempted transplantation was cut short, because intestinal necrosis had developed, and the patient died during the operation. Nine of the eleven patients who had a transplantation and three of the four treated conservatively survived.

The 60-day survival rate in this series, achieved in a recently established transplantation programme, is high (12 of 16; 75%), being comparable to those in larger transplantation centres.