Liver dialysis therapy allows successful pediatric transplant

Texas Children’s Hospital successfully implemented an extracorporeal support therapy system to treat a pediatric patient with acute liver failure, according to a news release.

The Molecular Adsorbent Recirculating System (MARS), a liver dialysis therapy, removes protein-bound and water-soluble toxins by combining regular dialysis with albumin-assisted dialysis. This process allows patients to awake from hepatic coma, helps to improve multi-organ function and provides support against further deterioration before liver transplantation, according to the hospital press release.

“There was a tremendous multidisciplinary effort to make this happen, with nearly every service at the hospital playing a role,” Michael Braun, MD, head of the renal section at Texas Children’s Hospital, said in the release. “We are thrilled to now offer patients with acute liver failure another treatment option through liver dialysis with the MARS system.”

The system assisted a hepatic coma patient, aged 9 years, who became healthy enough to undergo a liver transplant, according to the release. It is the first time the procedure has been successful in a pediatric case in Texas, the release said.

“MARS is not a stand-alone therapy, nor should it be,” Ayse Akcan-Arikan, MD, medical director of the hospital’s extracorporeal liver support program, said in the release. “This therapy needs to be part of a vigorous liver transplant program. We are fortunate to have an outstanding collaborative culture with exceptional nurses who provide extracorporeal therapies at Texas Children’s, so this was a natural progression of our program.”

The system currently works to improve the health of patients with end-stage liver failure, but also will be used in the future to treat patients affected by medication overdoses and poisonings by removing ingested toxins, the release said.