Definition 476

Aetiology 476

Therapy 480

Complications 480

Transplantation 484

Liver support system 484

Prognosis 485

Acute liver failure (ALF) in children is defined as ‘a rare multisystem disorder in which severe impairment of liver function, with or without encephalopathy, occurs in association with hepatocellular necrosis in a patient with no recognized underlying chronic liver disease’. Liver function is considered severely impaired if prothrombin time (PT) is >15 s or international normalized ratio (INR) is >1.5 and not corrected by vitamin K, in the presence of hepatic encephalopathy (HE) or a PT >20 s or INR >2.0 in the absence of HE....