Bioartificial liver support. Review and personal experience.

End-stage liver disease is treated successfully by liver transplantation. In spite of the recent advances in transplantation techniques, donor organ shortage remains a serious problem. Conditions such as fulminant hepatic failure are still burdened by a high mortality rate. This has prompted the design of an extracorporeal liver assist device, to "bridge" patients over until they either recover or receive a liver transplant. In these devices, various types of liver cells are inserted and different device designs have been proposed. The paper will review different models of bioartificial liver and will describe ongoing clinical trials. At the end we will report our experimental experience with a newly designed bioartificial liver, evaluating its beneficial effect on acute liver failure.