As of today, the only treatment option that has been shown to be effective is liver transplantation. However, there are some limitations with this treatment. While the short-term impacts of a liver transplant are excellent and improves immediate quality of life, there are many issues that could occur with transplants in the long-term, like the risk of rejection by the body, and the fact that liver transplants cannot heal damage done by severe ACLF to other organs. There are also logistical issues associated with liver transplants.
- The worldwide organ shortages that will increase the wait-time for a transplant, allowing ACLF to progress and damage the patient’s body more and possibly even death before the patient ever receives the transplant.
- Many donated livers go unused due to poor donor parameters and/or poor allograft compatibility. Poor compatibility can increase chances of rejection by the body and further complicate the condition of the patient.
Aside from transplants, another treatment option that has been explored is the use of liver support devices. One such device is the Extracorporeal Liver Support (ELS) device, which uses an artificial liver and carries out the liver’s job of filtering waste products from the blood. However, studies on these devices have shown that they have very little impact on reducing the 28-day and 90-day mortality rates caused by ACLF.