Brain Edema in Experimental Fulminant Hepatic Failure

Brain edema and intracranial hypertension are fatal complications of fulminant hepatic failure (FHF) (1). Demonstration of temporal lobe or uncal herniation at autopsy indicate that they represent a leading cause of death in this disease (2). Catalogued as “complications” of acute liver failure (3), few studies have addressed their pathogenesis. Studies of the mechanisms that bring about both edema and intracranial hypertension are difficult to carry out in these critically ill patients. In this regard, hepatologists tend to equate brain edema with intracranial hypertension; while edema relates to an increase in brain water, intracranial hypertension to a rise in pressure within the skull. In this presentation, we will review our work in the experimental animal, an approach that allowed us to separately explore each aspect of this disturbance. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.