I. What is an artificial liver? Artificial liver is a high-tech artificial organ replacement support treatment technology developed in recent years. The treatment system consists of extracorporeal circulation line, power device, blood separating filter or perfusion device, modal control computer system and monitoring and alarm system. Through extracorporeal circulation, blood is introduced into this treatment system to remove toxic substances and harmful cytokines from human body, replenish plasma, albumin, coagulation factors and other beneficial substances, temporarily replace liver function and achieve the effect of treating liver failure or related diseases. Second, the principle of artificial liver therapy The pathogenesis of liver failure due to various causes is different, but its pathophysiological changes are similar, i.e., the patient’s liver loses its detoxification and synthesis functions, toxic substances accumulate in large quantities, and the body is severely deficient in substances necessary for maintaining life, such as albumin and various clotting factors. This situation can in turn further inhibit hepatocyte regeneration, forming a vicious cycle that eventually leads to multiple complications or multi-organ failure and death. The therapeutic effect of artificial liver is based on the reversibility of liver damage and the strong regenerative capacity of hepatocytes. The aim of treatment is to interrupt this vicious cycle and promote hepatocyte regeneration, or to maintain and prolong the survival time of patients as long as possible to wait for hepatocyte regeneration and repair, so as to improve the basic functions of the liver and reduce the mortality rate of patients with severe liver disease and liver failure. In addition, artificial liver treatment is also good for clearing hyperlipidemia and rescuing various kinds of poisoning. Third, what are the indications for artificial liver? 1, various causes (including viral, drug, toxic, immune, etc.) resulting in heavy hepatitis and liver failure, especially combined with hyperbilirubinemia, hepatic coma, hepatorenal syndrome, cerebral edema and bleeding tendency patients; 2, serious autoimmune disease and some blood diseases; 3, a variety of acute poisoning (such as alcoholic, organophosphorus pesticides, inorganic poison, snake venom, etc.), especially with patients with hepatic impairment; 4, biliary obstruction, hepatocellular carcinoma, bile duct cancer that are not suitable for surgery, combined with hyperbilirubinemia or bleeding tendency; 5, hyperlipidemia with dizziness and palpitations that cannot be relieved by drug treatment; 6, sepsis and inflammatory response syndrome with obvious bleeding tendency; 7, encephalitis and cerebral edema with renal insufficiency; 8, perioperative support treatment for liver transplantation. IV. Clinical efficacy and cost-benefit of artificial liver Artificial liver has good clinical efficacy. Taking heavy hepatitis as an example, it can reduce the morbidity and mortality rate from the previous 80% to 40%. By analyzing and comparing the cost effect of patients treated with integrated medical treatment alone and artificial liver: the cost of using integrated drug treatment to normalize patients’ transaminases, total serum bilirubin and prothrombin activity is 1.47 times, 1.73 times and 1.34 times of the artificial liver group respectively; although the cost of each treatment is higher in the artificial liver group, the morbidity and mortality rate is reduced by half (life is priceless!) In the artificial liver group, although the cost per treatment was higher, the mortality rate was reduced by half (life is priceless!), and the total hospitalization cost was reduced due to faster recovery, fewer complications, and shorter hospitalization time, resulting in a greater benefit-to-cost ratio.