Pediatric Acute Liver Failure

Acute liver failure (ALF) is a condition in which liver function rapidly deteriorates. ALF often affects young people and causes serious, and sometimes fatal, complications. Treatment of the disease is dependent upon its cause, which can be numerous factors. Because recovery from this disease is random, there is no way to predict how a patient will respond to treatment. Sometimes a liver transplant is required in order for a patient to make a full recovery. The mission of the Pediatric Acute Liver Failure (PALF) study is to develop methods to predict whether a child will require a life-saving procedure in order to recover from the illness.

Clinical, epidemiological, and outcome data on PALF patients will be collected and analyzed. The study group will also use the data to identify unrecognized mechanisms of liver injury that cause PALF. Acute liver failure leads to hepatic encephalopathy and cerebral edema, so patients will be invited to participate in neurocognitive testing to determine whether long-term neurocognitive function has been compromised. The prediction methods will vary and be influenced by age, diagnosis, multi-system organ failure, degree of encephalopathy, and coagulopathy level.