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ISSN 1001-5256 (Print)
ISSN 2097-3497 (Online)
CN 22-1108/R
Volume 41 Issue 6
Jun.  2025
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Article Contents

Syndrome evolution of acute-on-chronic liver failure and ideas for diagnosis and treatment

DOI: 10.12449/JCH250602
Research funding:

National Science and Technology Major Project (2008ZX10005-007);

High Level Key Discipline Construction Project of Traditional Chinese Medicine by the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (zyyzdxk-2023146);

National Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinical Research Base Business Contruction Research Special Project (JDZX2012061);

General Project of National Natural Science Foundation of China (81973833);

General Project of National Natural Science Foundation of China (81673959);

Scientific Research Fund of State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (JDZX2012061);

General Project of Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province (2025JJ50697);

General Project of Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province (2020JJ4475)

More Information
  • Corresponding author: SUN Kewei, keweisun550@163.com (ORCID: 0000-0002-9734-3717)
  • Received Date: 2025-04-04
  • Accepted Date: 2025-05-02
  • Published Date: 2025-06-25
  • Acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) is an acute and critical illness with a high short-term mortality rate, and current therapies mainly focus on elimination of causes, organ support, and prevention of complications. Although liver transplantation is the most effective treatment modality, its clinical application is limited, and traditional Chinese medicine has shown significant advantages and characteristics in the treatment of ACLF. In traditional Chinese medicine, ACLF is classified into the same category as diseases such as “jaundice”, and unlike traditional jaundice which is mostly characterized by excess and heat syndromes, the syndrome of ACLF has gradually transformed from Yang jaundice to Yin jaundice due to the changing disease spectrum of ACLF. With reference to the pathogenesis of ACLF in Western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine theories, this article discusses the essential pathogenesis of ACLF in traditional Chinese medicine, explores the evolution of ACLF syndromes, and reviews the research advances in the clinical efficacy and mechanisms of traditional Chinese medicine based on the three-factor differentiation-based treatment of damp-heat, blood stasis-heat, and spleen deficiency, as well as the safety of spleen-strengthening and Yang-warming drugs in the clinical treatment of ACLF, in order to provide ideas, methods, and evidence for the application of traditional Chinese medicine in ACLF.

     

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