Liver dialysis

[pete]

I live outside New Orleans, La and have heard of some very good outcomes for patients listed as status 1 transplant patients that had been put on liver dialysis at Tulane Hospital and averted the need for transplant and then went home. Do all hospitals have this therapy available as a treatment option? What is your experience with liver dialysis? What are the indications for its use?   Thanks  Pete

[HFHSm.D.-Gastro-rf]

Dear pete,
Liver dialysis has been used as a temporizing measure to remove toxins that would normally be removed by the liver.  It is usually considered a bridge to transplantation.  This means that patients with irreversible end stage liver disease can be supported with liver dialysis until a transplant becomes available.  For those with acute liver injury (failure) in which normal function is expected after recovery, liver dialysis may be appropriate.  In general, liver dialysis should still be considered an experimental therapy that is not done in all centers at this time.

This information is presented for educational purposes only.  Ask specific questions to your personal physician.

[Nikole Balough Reno, NV]

Question:
My mother had her gallbladder removed last year, because one of her gallstones had come out and lodged itself in her livers bile duct. Then, because they had to surgically remove the stone, they found that she had a growth on her pancrease, which was benign, but they did a Whipple procedure on her. She ended up with some complications, they didn't know that she clotted and half of her liver died, most of her spleen died, and she had to have half of her pancrease cut off. Now a year later, she's back in the hospital, and now they have found that she has bile stones. Apparently she has a bacterial infection from those stones, which are making her blood bacterial, and she's sick with a fever. She now has to go to San Francisco, either Stanford, or UCSF.  My question is:  What can they do for her to fix the problem that she's having?  Do you have any experience in a procedure like this?  Is this procedure life threatening?

[Denise Salome]

Could a man like Walter Payton, have benefited from liver dialysis even though he had a malignancy?  I understand that once the malignancy made him non-qualified for transplant.

[Maher]

sgpt:68 normal up to 45
alka.:232 normal up to 213
sgot:54 normal up to 45
non (B)non (C)virus
ama :negative
BRUCELLA FROM 26/08/1997 POSITIVE 1/160
NOW 1/40 AT  04/11/1999
WHAT IS YOUR MIND
ONCE

[Veronica Quinn]

I live in Phoenix, Az. Where is the closest place that would offer the liver dialysis? My dad is in need of a new liver.