Acute liver failure

[Britney]

Acute liver failure is caused most often by drugs and hepatitis viruses. Cardinal manifestations are jaundice, coagulopathy, and encephalopathy. Diagnosis is clinical. Treatment is mainly supportive, sometimes with liver transplantation and/or specific therapies (eg, N-acetylcysteine for acetaminophen toxicity).
(See also Liver Structure and Function and Evaluation of the Patient with a Liver Disorder.)
Liver failure can be classified in several ways, but no system is universally accepted (see table Classification of Liver Failure).