Drug-induced acute liver failure

Abstract

Although acute liver failure caused by drug-induced liver injury comprises a small fraction of overall drug-induced liver injury, these patients require high resource use and have relatively poor outcomes. Drug-induced liver injury caused by idiosyncrasy more often leads to death or transplantation than does acetaminophen acute liver failure, but the number of patients in each category receiving a graft is roughly the same. Efforts in the future to improve outcomes should focus on more effective treatments and better methods to identify those that might experience poor outcomes.

Keywords: Coagulopathy; Encephalopathy; Hepatocyte injury; Liver transplantation.