American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology
ResearchObstetricsAcute fatty liver of pregnancy: clinical outcomes and expected duration of recovery
Section snippets
Materials and Methods
From 1975-2012, ≥1 of the investigators were involved in the care of women who were admitted to Parkland Hospital with a diagnosis of AFLP. These names were entered into a registry, and with approval from the Institutional Review Boards at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Parkland Hospital, data were extracted from these medical records. For the entire study period, the criteria for diagnosis included evidence of acute liver failure with characteristic clinical findings
Results
From 1975-2012, there were 51 women with AFLP. Of these, 48 women were from the Parkland Hospital obstetrics population, and the 3 women were transferred from area hospitals. During this 38-year period, approximately 492,000 women were delivered at our hospital; thus, the frequency of AFLP was 1 per 10,000 births. With the exception of a propensity for twin gestations of 14%, their demographic characteristics were similar to women from our general obstetrics population. Their mean maternal age
Comment
We identified 51 women with acute fatty liver disease of pregnancy during this 38-year period for a frequency at Parkland Hospital of 1 per 10,000 births. This frequency compares with reported estimates of 1:7000 for Los Angeles County Hospital and 1:20,000 for the United Kingdom.9, 11 The complications and pregnancy outcomes shown in Table 2 for these women are similar to those from 6 recent reports and confirm that most morbidity that is associated with AFLP is collateral to liver failure.9,
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The authors report no conflict of interest.
Cite this article as: Nelson DB, Yost NP, Cunningham FG. Acute fatty liver of pregnancy: clinical outcomes and expected duration of recovery. Am J Obstet Gynecol 2013;209:456.e1-7.