OBJECTIVETo judge the prognosis in the patients with fulminant hepatic failure and to provide the evidences of correct therapy.

METHODSThe clinical features and the indexes which may affect the prognosis of the patients with fulminant hepatic failure were analyzed. Indexes including prothrombin time (PT), the routine biochemical analysis of liver and kidney functions, the plasma levels of glucose and ammonia, cortisol, lipases, amylase, age, gender and complications were analyzed using the software Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS)15.0. The differences between the died and living patients were compared.

RESULTSThe mortality of the patients was 65% and the highest was 80% for those with HBV and HEV coinfection. The age and gender had no influence on mortality (P value was 0.423 and 0.728 respectively). HBV infection was the main factor which caused fulminant hepatic failure (52%), The next was hepatitis E virus infection (39%). Among the indexes analyzed, the plasma levels of total bilirubin, usea nitrogen, creatinine, glucose, cholesterol and prothrombin time had positive correlations with the prognosis of the patients (P value was 0.005, 0.001, 0.001, 0.005, 0.010 and 0.049 respectively). The incidence rate of hepatic coma, hepatorenal syndrome, and adrenal insufficiency were higher in the died group than that in the living group (P value was 0.005, 0.012 and 0.025 respectively). But prothrombin time was the only factor which had correlation with the prognosis (P=0.035) analyzed by multivariate logistic regression analysis. The scores of MELD were higher in the died group than that in living group (t=18.236, P<0.01) and especially in the patients with hepatic coma and hepatorenal syndrome. The scores of MELD also had positive correlation with the plasma level of TNFa (r=0.585, P<0.01).

CONCLUSIONSThe HBV infection was the main cause of fulminant hepatic failure and HBV and HEV coinfection had the highest mortality. The plasma levels of total bilirubin, cholesterol, glucose , prothrombin time and some complications including hepatic coma, hepatorenal syndrome, and adrenal insufficiency maybe had positive correlations with the prognosis of fulminant hepatic failure. The scores of MELD may predict the prognosis of these patients.