5-Minute Clinical Consult: Hepatic Failure

Hepatic Failure

Description

Due to the difficulty in assessing for hepatic encephalopathy in younger children, a set of criteria has been proposed to diagnose acute liver failure in the pediatric population:
- Biochemical evidence of liver injury
- No previous history of chronic liver disease
- Coagulopathy not responsive to vitamin K administration
- International normalized ratio (INR) >1.5 in the presence of encephalopathy or INR >2 without encephalopathy
In older children and adolescents where hepatic encephalopathy can be more easily assessed, acute liver failure may more simply be defined as:
- Onset of encephalopathy <8 weeks after the onset of symptoms referable to liver dysfunction (jaundice, etc.) in a patient without pre-existing liver disease of any form

Hepatic Failure has been found in Select 5-Minute Pediatrics Topics

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