| 英文摘要 |
Severe liver failure is a disease with rapid progression, poor prognosis, and high mortality. The symptoms and signs of severe liver failure include fatigue, jaundice, bleeding, hepatic encephalopathy, esophageal varices, hepatorenal syndrome, brain edema and multiple organ failure. Most patients are managed by supportive treatments which cannot cure the condition. Liver transplantation is the only curative treatment for severe liver failure, but many patients die before transplantation due to lack of donated organsin Taiwan. The extracorporeal liver support system, Molecular Adsorbent Recirculating System (MARS), was developed to treat severe liver failure in recent years. It can effectively remove toxins out of patient’s body and stabilize hemodynamics to gain time for patients in waiting for liver transplantation. |
