Acute-on-chronic liver failure syndrome - clinical results from an intensive care unit in a liver transplant center

OBJECTIVE: To characterize a cohort of acute-on-chronic liver failure patients in Intensive Care and to analyze the all-cause 28-day mortality risk factors assessed at ICU admission and day 3. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study of consecutive patients admitted to the intensive care unit between March 2013 and December 2016. RESULTS: Seventy-one patients were included. The median age was 59 (51 - 64) years, and 81.7% of patients were male. Alcohol consumption alone (53.5%) was the most frequent etiology of cirrhosis and infection (53.5%) was the most common acute-on-chronic liver failure precipitating event. At intensive care unit admission, the clinical severity scores were APACHE II 21 (16 - 23), CLIF-SOFA 13 (11 - 15), Child-Pugh 12 (10 - 13) and MELD 27 (20 - 32). The acute-on-chronic liver failure scores were no-acute-on-chronic liver failure: 11.3%; one: 14.1%; two: 28.2% and three: 46.5%; and the number of organ failures was one: 4.2%; two: 42.3%; three: 32.4%; four: 16.9%; and five: 4.2%. Liver transplantation was performed in 15.5% of patients. The twenty-eight-day mortality rate was 56.3%, and the in-ICU mortality rate was 49.3%. Organ failure at intensive care unit admission (p = 0.02; OR 2.1; 95%CI 1.2 - 3.9), lactate concentration on day 3 (p = 0.02; OR 6.3; 95%CI 1.4 - 28.6) and the international normalized ratio on day 3 (p = 0.03; OR 10.2; 95%CI 1.3 - 82.8) were independent risk factors. CONCLUSION: Acute-on-chronic liver failure patients presented with high clinical severity and mortality rates. The number of organ failures at intensive care unit admission and the lactate and international normalized ratio on day 3 were independent risk factors for 28-day mortality. We consider intensive care essential for acute-on-chronic liver failure patients and timely liver transplant was vital for selected patients.