Obesity May Lead to Acute Liver Failure

Filed in archive Studies on June 8, 2006

Acute liver failure or ALF is a serious medical condition in which large portions of the liver quickly become so damaged that the liver is no longer able to function, therefore putting patients at risk of severe complications and death.

There was one study presented couple of weeks ago at the Digestive Disease Week® 2006 that confirms the link between obesity and acute liver failure.

While it has been well known and established that diabetes and obesity has a strong connection to the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), little is known about the connection of these conditions to acute liver failure (AFL).

The research team from Massachusetts General Hospital and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) found that although obesity does not appear more prevalent in ALF cases, patients who are obese or morbidly obese have significantly poorer outcomes with ALF.

Read more at Science Daily.