Items related to Artificial Liver Support: Concepts, Methods, Results
Synopsis
Continuing progress has been made since the first edition of Artificial Liver Support was published. Liver transplantation has however become an estab- lished therapy for a relatively small number of patients who remain patients for life. There therefore continues to be a great need for the development of other forms of artificial liver support. Improved intensive care utilizing improved plasma exchange, dialysis, sclerotherapy, and intracranial pressure monitoring have improved survival in fulminant hepatic failure. Progress has also been made in lipid membrane detoxification, in cell cultures, and in cell transplantation, and the isolation of various liver cell growth factors has led to deep insight into the mechanisms of liver regeneration. This book gives the clinician and the researcher detailed information about established new methods of clinic work and laboratory research, and describes new experimental approaches indicating the direction of future research. G. BRUNNER M. Mno Preface to the First Edition The regenerative capacity of the liver cell is almost unlimited. Therefore after acute liver damage, be it viral, toxic, hypoxic, or surgical in origin, restitutio ad integrum is the usual outcome. In two forms of liver disease, however, this is not the case: in fulminant hepatic failure, liver regeneration often is not fast enough to keep the organism alive; in end-stage cirrhosis, regeneration is disturbed by a hypertrophic architecture of fibrotic tissue. For these extreme forms of liver disease and for critical situations before and after liver surgery, artificial liver support is needed.
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From the Back Cover
For more than 25 years clinicians and scientists have been trying to improve the treatment of acute hepatic failure. Several devices were developed and hemodialysis procedures were refined. The treatment of fulminant hepatic failure and end-stage liver cirrhosis by liver transplantation became a standard procedure. However, for the successful management of critical situations before and after liver surgery, artificial liver support is still needed.
This book is the proceedings of the Falk Symposium No. 145 on ‘Artificial Liver Support’, held on 27--28 January 2005 in Ulm, Germany, and provides an overview of the possibilities and limitations of the existing procedures and devices available for artificial liver support.
The results achieved with albumin dialysis (MARS System), the Prometheus System, and dialysis and hemofiltration or plasma exchange as well as modular extracorporeal liver support (MELS) and the Amsterdam bioartificial liver are discussed in detail regarding their effects in different clinical situations.
In the second half of the book, the remaining problems and expectations for the future of clinical hepatocyte transplantation and stem cell therapy are elucidated.
Leading experts in the fields of artificial devices, bioartificial devices, hepatocyte transplantation and stem cells present the latest data on these topics. Their experience and their data are summarized in this volume, thus providing an exceptional overview of the problems and future perspectives in the field of artificial liver support.
Synopsis
This overview of artificial liver support presents the current knowledge of liver failure and regeneration, clinical methods used in treatment, new experimental methods of treatment, an overview of the present status of liver transplanation and possible future developments.
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