Extracorporeal liver support in severe alcoholic hepatitis

Figure 1 Changes in circulating levels of total bilirubin and plasma renin activity before and after each 7-h molecular adsorbent recirculating system session performed on 10 patients with severe alcoholic hepatitis (gray shaded bars). Ten days later there was a recovery of these levels although they were lower than before treatment (P = NS). ^aP < 0.05 vs before and after each molecular adsorbent recirculating system (MARS) session.

Figure 2 Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) levels before and after molecular adsorbent recirculating system treatment in patients with severe alcoholic hepatitis. Although no significant decrease was observed in the circulating TNF-α, the dialysate was enriched with this cytokine, thus indicating that albumin dialysis is able to remove some substances related to the pathogenesis of the disease.

Figure 3 Cumulated survivals of the ten patients with severe alcoholic hepatitis treated with 3 consecutive 7-h molecular adsorbent recirculating system sessions. Fifty percent of the patients were still alive 6 mo after treatment, and 40 percent survived 20 mo.