Short-Term Mortality and Survival among Patients with Acute-On- Chronic Liver Failure: A Prospective Cohort Study

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the frequency of short-term mortality (30 days) and survival among patients with acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF). Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional was carried out at gastroenterology department of the Asian Institute of Medical Sciences Sindh, Pakistan Patients with acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) aged more than 30 years of either gender were included. The patients were monitored for one month to assess the mortality or survival.
Results: Overall average age of 40.9 years. 73.5% were male and 26.5% were female.
Organ failure stratification indicated that 51.3% had fewer than three organ failures, while 48.7% had three or more. In terms of 30-day mortality, 61.5% of participants expired, while 38.5% survived. Analyzing mortality by age, gender and etiology was not statistically significant (p = >0.05). Although organ category analysis indicated that mortality was significantly higher in category 2 (p = 0.043).
Conclusion: Among patients with ACLF, the short-term mortality was observed to highly frequent and significantly associated to patients with multiple organ failures. The findings underscore the importance of organ failure stratification as a key predictor of outcomes in ACLF, suggesting that early identification and management of organ dysfunction may be critical in improving survival rates.
Key words: ACLF, mortality, etiology, predictors.