Etiology, clinical presentation, and outcome of children with fulminant hepatic failure: Experience from a tertiary center in Pakistan

  • Sidra Talat Shifa College of Medicine, Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University, Islamabad, Pakistan
  • Sabeen Abid Khan Shifa College of Medicine, Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University, Islamabad, Pakistan
  • Nismat Javed Shifa College of Medicine, Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University
  • Munir Iqbal Malik Shifa College of Medicine, Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University, Islamabad, Pakistan
Keywords: fulminant hepatic failure, children, Pakistani, overlapping etiologies

Abstract

Objectives: To determine etiologies, clinical presentations and outcomes of children with fulminant hepatic failure in the first liver transplant center of Pakistan.

Methods: It was a retrospective, observational study, conducted in Paediatric Gastroenterology Department of Shifa International Hospital. Patients between one month to 16 years were included who fulfilled the Pediatric Acute Liver Failure study group (PALFSG) definition of acute liver failure as biochemical evidence of liver injury with no known co-existing chronic liver disease, coagulopathy not corrected by vitamin K, an International Normalized Ratio (INR) greater than 1.5 if the patient has encephalopathy, or greater than 2.0 if the patient does not have encephalopathy. The data collected was recorded on a self-constructed proforma after IRB approval.

Results: There were 28 patients in the study which ncluded 17 males and 11 females with a mean age of 72.86±52.50 months. The most common etiologies were Hepatitis A (29%) in isolation or co-infection with Wilson Disease, typhoid fever. It was followed by seronegative hepatitis (29%). Majority (64%) had acute presentation (7 to 28 days), jaundice (82%) being the most common symptom. Severity of encephalopathy was significantly associated with outcome (p=0.02). There were 6 (21%) patients who succumbed to death.

Conclusions: The study highlights infective diseases as the predominant etiology causing fulminant liver failure in children. Our study highlights lower mortality in children

doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.6.2375

How to cite this:
Talat S, Khan SA, Javed N, Malik MI. Etiology, clinical presentation, and outcome of children with fulminant hepatic failure: Experience from a tertiary center in Pakistan. Pak J Med Sci. 2020;36(6):1252-1256.   doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.6.2375

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Author Biographies

Sidra Talat, Shifa College of Medicine, Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University, Islamabad, Pakistan

Senior Registrar, Department of Paediatrics

Sabeen Abid Khan, Shifa College of Medicine, Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University, Islamabad, Pakistan

Assistant Professor, Department of Paediatrics

Munir Iqbal Malik, Shifa College of Medicine, Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University, Islamabad, Pakistan

Professor and Paediatric Gastroenterologist, Department of Paediatrics

Published
2020-08-19
How to Cite
Talat, S., Abid Khan, S., Javed, N., & Iqbal Malik, M. (2020). Etiology, clinical presentation, and outcome of children with fulminant hepatic failure: Experience from a tertiary center in Pakistan. Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences, 36(6). https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.6.2375