Liver Failure
What is liver failure?
End-stage liver disease is an irreversible condition in which the liver cannot perform its vital functions in the body.
When this happens, the liver cannot get better. A transplant offers the only chance for long-term survival.
Common types of liver failure include:
- Sudden (acute) failure from infection or toxicity from certain chemicals, herbals and even some medicines
- Long-term failure as a result of disease
Who gets liver failure?
Liver disease affects people of all ages. There are more than 100 known liver diseases. Serious liver disease affects approximately 1 in every 2,500 children in the United States.
Children born without bile ducts or with abnormal bile ducts, a condition called biliary atresia, can have chronic liver failure. Biliary atresia accounts for at least 50 percent of all liver transplants among children.
What’s special about the way Children’s treats liver failure?
We have been treating children with liver diseases, such as hepatitis and biliary atresia, and performing liver transplant surgery since 1990. Overall survival rates have been excellent. The only pediatric transplant program in the Pacific Northwest, Children’s is growing into a national pediatric liver transplant center.
Prior to the development of liver transplant, many children with advanced liver disease died from liver failure. While certain liver diseases had specific medical or surgical treatments, much of the treatment for liver disease was supportive rather than therapeutic.
Our liver transplant team is led by Dr. Patrick Healey, Children’s division chief of Transplantation. Dr. Healey is one of the few pediatric transplant surgeons with expertise in both transplant and pediatric surgery. He has performed more than 100 liver transplantations on children.
Dr. Jorge Reyes, director of Transplant Services at Children’s, is one of the most experienced pediatric liver transplant surgeons in the United States, with more than 1,000 successful surgeries performed to date. Dr. Reyes is also one of the few surgeons in the world who performs living donor liver transplants.
Dr. Simon Horslen, medical director of Liver and Intestine Transplant at Children’s, is an internationally recognized pediatric liver specialist and transplant doctor.
We are committed to excellent patient and organ survival outcomes. We are constantly improving surgery techniques and medication therapy strategies so we can provide the most current treatments and the very best patient care.
We continue to advance the state of practice and understanding of transplant through our research programs. Currently, our top research priority is decreasing patients’ dependence on anti-rejection drugs.
We are also committed to recruiting and retaining the best transplant specialists.
What are the treatment options for liver failure?
There are effective medicines for some liver diseases. Some treat only the symptoms of the disease and that may be all that is needed if the liver is not failing.
Other times, non-surgical medical treatment is used mainly to delay the need for a transplant.
Most treatment for liver failure focuses on maintaining the current level of liver function and not overtaxing the liver.
For end-stage liver disease, transplant is the standard of care.