Brain edema in liver failure: Basic physiologic principles and management
@article{Larsen2002BrainEI, title={Brain edema in liver failure: Basic physiologic principles and management}, author={Fin Stolze Larsen and Julia A. Wendon}, journal={Liver Transplantation}, year={2002}, volume={8} }
In patients with severe liver failure, brain edema is a frequent and serious complication that may result in high intracranial pressure and brain damage. This short article focuses on basic physiologic principles that determine water flux across the blood‐brain barrier. Using the Starling equation, it is evident that both the osmotic and hydrostatic pressure gradients are imbalanced across the blood‐brain barrier in patients with acute liver failure. This combination will tend to favor cerebral…
77 Citations
Treatment of Brain Edema in Acute Liver Failure
- MedicineCurrent treatment options in neurology
- 2010
Management of intracranial pressure in patients with acute liver failure should be guided by well-defined treatment protocols, and the most promising novel therapeutic alternative is the induction of moderate hypothermia for brain swelling caused by liver failure.
Prevention and management of brain edema in patients with acute liver failure
- MedicineLiver transplantation : official publication of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and the International Liver Transplantation Society
- 2008
If intracranial hypertension evolves despite these first‐tier interventions, increased sedation, induction of hypothermia, and the use of anti‐inflammatory drugs may help secure brain viability.
Therapeutic hypothermia for acute liver failure
- Medicine, BiologyCritical care medicine
- 2009
Although an ample body of experimental and human data provides a rationale for the use of therapeutic Hypothermia in patients with acute liver failure, multicenter, randomized, controlled clinical trials are needed to confirm that hypothermia secures brain viability and improves survival without causing harm.
Encephalopathy and Cerebral Edema in the Setting of Acute Liver Failure: Pathogenesis and Management
- MedicineNeurocritical care
- 2008
Treatment should be focused at optimizing liver function and regenerative capacity and minimizing the inflammatory milieu, and the use of cooling in the management of patients with acute liver failure and raised intracranial pressure is developed.
Mild hypothermia for acute liver failure: a review of mechanisms of action.
- Medicine, BiologyJournal of clinical gastroenterology
- 2005
At a time when mild hypothermia is increasingly used in several specialized centers, performance of a randomized controlled trial seems critical to confirm the benefits of mild hypotherapy in acute liver failure and to provide adequate guidelines for its use.
Mechanisms of brain edema in acute liver failure and impact of novel therapeutic interventions
- Medicine, BiologyNeurological research
- 2007
Continued elucidation of the mechanisms of brain edema in acute liver failure has established ammonia and the astrocyte as major players in its pathogenesis and are reflected in the various clinical trials of novel therapeutic interventions.
Keeping cool in acute liver failure: rationale for the use of mild hypothermia.
- Medicine, BiologyJournal of hepatology
- 2005
Cerebral Blood Flow in Acute Liver Failure: A Finding in Search of a Mechanism
- Medicine, BiologyMetabolic Brain Disease
- 2004
Several mediators potentially involved in the development of cerebral hyperemia in ALF are examined in this review, but further work is needed to assess the role, if any, of each of them.
Brain edema in acute liver failure. A window to the pathogenesis of hepatic encephalopathy.
- MedicineAnnals of hepatology
- 2003
Management of Cerebral Edema in Acute Liver Failure
- MedicineSeminars in respiratory and critical care medicine
- 2017
This review particularly provides a practical focus on general management of the patient with established cerebral edema as well as specific intracranial pressure‐lowering strategies, and a brief summary into the pathophysiology and risk factors for developing cerebralEdema in the context of acute liver failure.
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