Outcome of acute liver failure in the elderly
Frank V Schiødt, Raymond T Chung, Michael L Schilsky, J Eileen Hay, Erik Christensen, William M Lee, Acute Liver Failure Study Group, W M Lee, George A Ostapowicz, Frank V Schiødt, Julie Polson, Anne M Larson, Timothy Davern, Michael Schilsky, Timothy McCashland, J Eileen Hay, Natalie Murray, Obaid S Shaikh, Andres Blei, Atif Zaman, Steven H B Han, Robert Fontana, Brendan McGuire, Ray Chung, Alastair Smith, Robert Brown, Jeffrey Crippin, Edwin Harrison, Adrian Reuben, Santiago Munoz, Rajender Reddy, R Todd Stravitz, Lorenzo Rossaro, Raj Satyanarayana, Tarek Hassanein, Frank V Schiødt, Raymond T Chung, Michael L Schilsky, J Eileen Hay, Erik Christensen, William M Lee, Acute Liver Failure Study Group, W M Lee, George A Ostapowicz, Frank V Schiødt, Julie Polson, Anne M Larson, Timothy Davern, Michael Schilsky, Timothy McCashland, J Eileen Hay, Natalie Murray, Obaid S Shaikh, Andres Blei, Atif Zaman, Steven H B Han, Robert Fontana, Brendan McGuire, Ray Chung, Alastair Smith, Robert Brown, Jeffrey Crippin, Edwin Harrison, Adrian Reuben, Santiago Munoz, Rajender Reddy, R Todd Stravitz, Lorenzo Rossaro, Raj Satyanarayana, Tarek Hassanein
Abstract
Older age is considered a poor prognostic factor in acute liver failure (ALF) and may still be considered a relative contraindication for liver transplantation for ALF. We aimed to evaluate the impact of older age, defined as age > or = 60 years, on outcomes in patients with ALF. One thousand one hundred twenty-six consecutive prospective patients from the US Acute Liver Failure Study Group registry were studied. The median age was 38 years (range, 15-81 years). One thousand sixteen patients (90.2%) were younger than 60 years (group 1), and 499 (49.1%) of these had acetaminophen-induced ALF; this rate of acetaminophen-induced ALF was significantly higher than that in patients > or = 60 years (group 2; n = 110; 23.6% with acetaminophen-induced ALF, P < 0.001). The overall survival rate was 72.7% in group 1 and 60.0% in group 2 (not significant) for acetaminophen patients and 67.9% in group 1 and 48.2% in group 2 for non-acetaminophen patients (P < 0.001). The spontaneous survival rate (ie, survival without liver transplantation) was 64.9% in group 1 and 60.0% in group 2 (not significant) for acetaminophen patients and 30.8% in group 1 and 24.7% in group 2 for non-acetaminophen patients (P = 0.27). Age was not a significant predictor of spontaneous survival in multiple logistic regression analyses. Group 2 patients were listed for liver transplantation significantly less than group 1 patients. Age was listed as a contraindication for transplantation in 5 patients. In conclusion, in contrast to previous studies, we have demonstrated a relatively good spontaneous survival rate for older patients with ALF when it is corrected for etiology. However, overall survival was better for younger non-acetaminophen patients. Fewer older patients were listed for transplantation.
Figures
Source: PubMed