Liver Support Devices In The Treatment Of Liver Failure

Despite the progress made in the intensive care treatment, liver failure is still associated with a high mortality, liver transplantation is the effective form of treatment that allows better patient outcome. Nonetheless, there is organ shortage and there is a need for liver support devices (LSD) that can effectively manage liver failure to bridge waitlist patients to transplant or regeneration whenever possible.At present, the development of LSD has been approached in two ways. Artificial LSD is based on detoxification functions using membranes and adsorbents which can remove the putative toxins associated with liver failure. The other is bioartificial LSD, are based on the use of living hepatocytes with either human hepatocytes or porcine hepatocytes which aim to provide the synthetic functions of the normal liver. However, in clinical practices often use a combination of devices from both.