**3. Acute liver failure**

It represents a form of critical illness, potentially fatal, that occurs in 1 case per million, and the incidence is variable in each continent: Europe 0.62, Asia 6.2–23.8, USA 0.19 cases per 100,000 person-years [3]. The most frequent cause is paracetamol poisoning, followed by undetermined causes, drug-induced injury (DILI), and hepatitis [4].

Acute liver failure (ALF) represents severe liver damage (transaminase elevation x 3) with the development of hepatic encephalopathy preceded by jaundice. This time interval from jaundice to the presence of encephalopathy [5] allows its classification (**Table 1**):


#### **Table 1.**

*Classifications of acute liver failure, which correspond to the time interval from the onset of jaundice to the development of encephalopathy.*
