Fulminant hepatic failure due to transient circulatory failure in patients with chronic heart disease.

Heart failure is a recognized, although uncommon, cause of massive liver cell necrosis, the clinical consequences of which are intermingled with those of cardiac insufficiency in most cases. We report the cases of six patients suffering from chronic heart failure in whom an episode of acute circulatory failure resulted in massive liver cell necrosis and fulminant hepatic failure. The manifestations of fulminant hepatic failure, ie, hepatic encephalopathy, jaundice, and marked increase in prothrombin time, developed after an interval of one to three days, after the episode of acute circulatory failure, while the patiens' hemodynamic condition had returned to the previous basal status.