All issues > Volume 33(7); 1990

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1990;33(7):923-931. Published online July 31, 1990.

Clinical Study of Fulminant Hepatitis in Childhood.

Se Wook Oh¹, Chan Yung Kim¹

¹Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, Pusan National University, Pusan, Korea.

Received: January 15, 1990;  Accepted: March 15, 1990.

Abstract

Twenty one cases of childhood fulminant hepatitis admitted to Pediatric department of Pusan National University Hospital form Jan. 1979 to Sep. 1989 were analysed. The results were as follows; 1) Age distribution was from 8 months to 13 yerars old and 66.7% of the patients were 2 to 9 year old of age. In sex ratio, male to female was 1,6:1. 2) Presumable etiologic factors were HBV infection (47.6%), drug (9.5%) and HAV infection (4. 8%). 3) The major complications were encephalopathy, gastrointestinal bleeding, electrolyte imbalance and renal failure. 4) Serum transaminase, bilirubin, prothrombin and activated partial prothrombin time were in- creased in all cases. Ammonia has been known to be the major cause of hepatic coma, but there was no significant difference between patients with encephalolpathy and those without encephalopathy, (mean 183.9 /zg/dl with encephalopathy, mean 139.9 /zg/dl without encephalopayth. (>0.05).) 5) The mean duration from encephalopathy to death was 6.7 days and half of the patients were succumbed within 6 days. The fatality rate was 85.7%.

Keywords :Fulminant hepatitis