Evidence-Based Medicine
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jun 21, 2017; 23(23): 4303-4310
Published online Jun 21, 2017. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v23.i23.4303
Substantial hepatic necrosis is prognostic in fulminant liver failure
Paul Ndekwe, Marwan S Ghabril, Yong Zang, Steven A Mann, Oscar W Cummings, Jingmei Lin
Paul Ndekwe, Steven A Mann, Oscar W Cummings, Jingmei Lin, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN 46202, United States
Marwan S Ghabril, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN 46202, United States
Yong Zang, Department of Biostatistics, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN 46202, United States
Author contributions: Ndekwe P and Lin J designed research/study; Ndekwe P, Ghabril MS, Mann SA and Lin J performed research/study and collected data; Ndekwe P, Ghabril MS, Zang Y, Mann SA, Cummings OW and Lin J analyzed data; Ndekwe P, Ghabril MS, Mann SA, Cummings OW and Lin J wrote paper.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board of Indiana University School of Medicine.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Jingmei Lin, MD, PhD, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, 350 West 11th Street, Indianapolis, IN 46202, United States. jinglin@iupui.edu
Telephone: +1-317-4916159 Fax: +1-317-4916419
Received: October 6, 2016
Peer-review started: October 10, 2016
First decision: December 19, 2016
Revised: March 21, 2017
Accepted: May 19, 2017
Article in press: May 19, 2017
Published online: June 21, 2017
Processing time: 257 Days and 10.6 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Fulminant liver failure is clinically characterized by an abrupt onset of jaundice and liver dysfunction with subsequent development of encephalopathy and coagulopathy in patients with or without preexisting liver disease. Liver biopsy may play a role in predicting patient survival, and may also potentially play a role in optimizing the utilization of resources in the setting of fulminant liver failure.