Table 2.
King's College criteria for selecting recipients of emergency liver transplants
| Acetaminophen-induced ALF | Non-acetaminophen-induced ALF |
| Strongly recommended list for OLT if: Arterial lactate > 3.5 mmol/L after early fluid resuscitation | List for transplantation if: INR > 6.5 and encephalopathy present irrespective of grade |
| List for transplantation if: Arterial pH < 7.3 or arterial lactate > 3.0 mmol/L after adequate fluid resuscitation | Or if any 3 of the following features (encephalopathy irrespective of grade) are present: |
| Age < 10 yr or > 40 yr1 | |
| Interval from jaundice to encephalopathy > 7 d1 | |
| List for transplantation if all 3 of the following occur within a 24-h period: Grade 3 or 4 hepatic encephalopathy INR > 6.5 Creatinine > 300 μmol/L | INR ≥ 3.5 |
| Serum bilirubin ≥ 300 μmol/L | |
| Unfavorable etiology, such as seronegative hepatitis, idiosyncratic drug reaction or Wilson disease |
1
These criteria have not been found to be predictive of outcome in recent analyses. ALF: Acute liver failure; OLT: Orthotopic liver transplantation; INR: International normalized ratio.