Emergency liver transplant- a life-saving treatment for acute liver failure

 When a liver is damaged to an extent that it fails to perform its normal functions then surgeons and doctors suggests for liver transplantation wherein the diseased liver is replaced with healthy ones. Though, liver failure can usually be managed by medication for a short while but transplantation is the only cure when it comes to long term treatment. As dialysis machine acts as a life-support treatment for kidney failure, there is no such mechanical device for liver that can replicate the functions of the liver.

 There are two main reasons that lead to liver failure; choric liver failure and acute liver failure. Chronic liver failure is one when the liver fails as a result of damage over many months or years. While in acute liver failure an extensive damage to the liver occurs over a short period of time. The main causes of chronic liver failure include alcoholic liver disease, Hepatitis C, Primary Biliary Cirrhosis, Hepatitis B, Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis, Biliary Atresia, Autoimmune Hepatitis, Liver Cancer etc. 

However, acute liver failure is less common then chronic liver failure. But that is acute liver failure only which necessitates emergency liver transplant and is also largely associated with the high mortality rate. The most common indications for liver transplantation include hepatitis C virus (30%) and alcoholic liver disease (18%). However, other indications are Idiopathic/autoimmune liver disease (12%), Primary biliary cirrhosis (10%), Primary sclerosing cholangitis (8%), Acute liver failure (7%), Hepatitis B virus (6%), Metabolic liver disease (eg, inborn errors of metabolism) (3%), Cancer (3%), and Other (3%).