Acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) is an increasingly recognised entity encompassing an
acute deterioration of liver function in patients with cirrhosis, which is usually associated with
a precipitating event and results in the failure of one or more organs and high short term
mortality. Prospective data to define this is lacking but there is a large body of circumstantial
evidence suggesting that this condition is a distinct clinical entity. From the pathophysiologic
perspective, altered host response to injury and infection play important roles in its …