. Diagnosis of ACLF is made using the Chronic Liver Failure
Organ Failure (CLIF) score (Table 1) and its prognosis is determined
using the CLIF-ACLF score (www.clifconsortium.com, ACLF
calculator). ACLF occurs in approximately 30% of hospitalized cirrhotic
patients who present with a complication following an
identified or unidentified precipitating event, is characterized
by hepatic and/or extrahepatic organ failures, and is associated
with a 28-day mortality rate 15 times higher than patients without
ACLF [2,3]. In the U.S. each year, approximately 200,000
patients with cirrhosis are hospitalized of which approximately
10% require ICU care [3]. The cost of providing healthcare to these
patients amounts to about $13 billion per year