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©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Nov 16, 2025; 13(32): 113514
Published online Nov 16, 2025. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v13.i32.113514
Published online Nov 16, 2025. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v13.i32.113514
Is higher body mass index correlated with worse clinical outcomes in acute liver failure?
Tatsuo Kanda, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Uonuma Institute of Community Medicine, Niigata University Medical and Dental Hospital, Minamiuonuma 949-7302, Niigata, Japan
Tatsuo Kanda, Department of General Medicine, Uonuma Kikan Hospital, Minamiuonuma 949-7302, Niigata, Japan
Reina Sasaki-Tanaka, Hiroteru Kamimura, Shuji Terai, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepato
Author contributions: Kanda T wrote the original draft; Kanda T, Sasaki-Tanaka R, Kamimura H, and Terai S designed the overall concept and outline of the manuscript and wrote the paper; Kanda T contributed critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content. All the authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Supported by the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development, No. JP24fk0210132 and No. JP25fk0210132; and JSPS KAKENHI, No. JP23K15055.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Tatsuo Kanda, MD, PhD, Professor, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Uonuma Institute of Community Medicine, Niigata University Medical and Dental Hospital, 4132 Urasa, Minamiuonuma 949-7302, Niigata, Japan. kandatatsuo@gmail.com
Received: August 27, 2025
Revised: September 2, 2025
Accepted: September 26, 2025
Published online: November 16, 2025
Processing time: 77 Days and 7.4 Hours
Revised: September 2, 2025
Accepted: September 26, 2025
Published online: November 16, 2025
Processing time: 77 Days and 7.4 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Association between obesity and clinical outcomes in acute liver failure (ALF) was recently shown by Krishnan et al. Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed a significant difference in mortality between overweight and obese patients and patients with normal body mass index (BMI). Overweight and obese patients with ALF had a 2.20-fold and 2.04-fold increased risk of liver transplantation/death, respectively. A higher BMI was associated with acute kidney injury and higher grades of hepatic encephalopathy. Further studies are needed to determine the distribution of BMI among patients with acute severe hepatitis, including ALF and acute-on-chronic liver failure.