Description

Jain and Dhawan listed prognostic factors for a child with acute liver failure. These were based on criteria from an earlier paper by Dhawan et al. The authors are from King's College London.


Patient selection: pediatric acute liver failure (PALF)

 

Parameters:

(1) age of the patient in years

(2) peak INR

(3) peak serum total bilirubin in µmol/L

(4) WBC count in 10^9/L

 

Parameter

Finding

Points

age in years

< 2

1

 

>= 2

0

peak INR

< 4

0

 

>= 4

1

peak serum total bilirubin

< 235 µmol/L

0

 

>= 235 µmol/L

1

WBC count in 10^9/L

< 9 * 10^9/L

0

 

>= 9 * 10^9/L

1

 

total score =

= SUM(points for all of the parameters)

 

Interpretation:

• minimum score: 0

• maximum score: 4

• The higher the score the greater the mortality.

• The cumulative mortality is probably without transplantation.

• Hepatic encephalopathy may not develop in children, especially infants.

 

Total Score

Cumulative Mortality

0

 

1

76%

2

93%

3

96%

4

100%

 


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