Acute liver failure associated with influenza A and resolved with plasma exchange.

What is it about?

Although liver support systems play a major role as a bridge to transplantation, they may sometimes serve as a lifesaving treatment eliminating this need.We report on a 4-year-old boy who developed acute liver failure due to an influenza A (H3N2) infection as confirmed by clinical and laboratory data. Acute supportive treatment with plasma exchange proved to be life-saving in our case.

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Why is it important?

Despite our meticulous inquiry into our case as well as into reported cases in the literature, we could not elucidate the exact mechanism by which influenza A (H3N2) causes acute organ failure such as liver failure. Nonetheless, acute supportive treatment with plasma exchange proved to be life-saving and obviated the need for transplantation in our case.

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