Acute liver failure is a life threatening disease mostly triggered by drug-induced or toxic liver damage or viral hepatitis. Herpes Simplex virus (HSV) hepatitis is rare and accounts for only 1% of all acute liver failures. The importance of HSV-induced acute liver failure is based on its extremely severe clinical course with lethality rates of almost 75%. HSV hepatitis is just one of several clinical manifestations of HSV sepsis leading more frequently to encephalitis, pneumonia and esophagitis. Local herpes infection or recurrence of dermal lesions (herpes labialis, herpes genitalis), however, is common and account for the high prevalence of HSV-1 or HSV-2 infection in adults. Another rare entity is visual dissemination, which mostly affects immunocompromised patients. Compromised cellular immunity is a major risk factor for HSV sepsis because of either primary infection or reactivation of occult chronic HSV infection. Delayed diagnosis without antiviral therapy significantly contributes to the unfavorable outcome. Typically, anicteric hepatitis is seen in patients with HSV hepatitis. Because of its low incidence, however, and the lack of dermal manifestations, HSV hepatitis is rarely considered in the context of acute liver failure. In addition, diagnostic tests might not always be available. Therefore, it is a generally accepted consensus to begin antiviral therapy pre-emptively with acyclovir in cases of acute liver failure of unknown origin, in which high urgency (HU) liver transplantation remains the only therapeutical option. Even in the case of early specific therapy, sepsis may prevail and the indication for HU transplantation must be evaluated carefully. The outcome after liver transplantation for HSV-induced liver failure with reported survival rates of more than 40% is good. Because of the risk of recurrence, lifelong prophylaxis with acyclovir is recommended.

Based on high quality surgery and scientific data, scientists and surgeons are committed to protecting patients as well as healthcare staff and hereby provide this Guidance to address the special issues circumstances related to the exponential spread of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) during this pandemic. As a basis, the authors used the British Intercollegiate General Surgery Guidance as well as recommendations from the USA, Asia, and Italy. The aim is to take responsibility and to provide guidance for surgery during the COVID-19 crisis in a simplified way addressing the practice of surgery, healthcare staff and patient safety and care. It is the responsibility of scientists and the surgical team to specify what is needed for the protection of patients and the affiliated healthcare team. During crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the responsibility and duty to provide the necessary resources such as filters, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) consisting of gloves, fluid resistant (Type IIR) surgical face masks (FRSM), filtering face pieces, class 3 (FFP3 masks), face shields and gowns (plastic ponchos), is typically left up to the hospital administration and government. Various scientists and clinicians from disparate specialties provided a Pandemic Surgery Guidance for surgical procedures by distinct surgical disciplines such as numerous cancer surgery disciplines, cardiothoracic surgery, ENT, eye, dermatology, emergency, endocrine surgery, general surgery, gynecology, neurosurgery, orthopedics, pediatric surgery, reconstructive and plastic surgery, surgical critical care, transplantation surgery, trauma surgery and urology, performing different surgeries, as well as laparoscopy, thoracoscopy and endoscopy. Any suggestions and corrections from colleagues will be very welcome as we are all involved and locked in a rapidly evolving process on increasing COVID-19 knowledge.

Patients with a positive family history need closer surgical monitoring because primary disease will manifest earlier. A remarkable long-term recurrence rate exceeding 50% after 25 years places a much higher disease burden on patients with a positive family history. All available interventions known to reduce recurrence rate should be applied to this group of patients.

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Systemic levels of the key immune regulatory cytokines IL-12 and IL-18 were measured over time in 66 patients with postoperative sepsis (38 survivors and 28 nonsurvivors). Sepsis mortality was not significantly associated with any of the clinical parameters examined, including age, gender, underlying disease, and surgical procedure. Analysis of cytokine levels showed that during the entire observation period, IL-12 was significantly reduced in sepsis patients compared with control surgical patients without sepsis. IL-12 serum levels did not significantly differ between sepsis survivors and nonsurvivors. In contrast to IL-12, IL-18 serum levels were significantly higher in both surviving and nonsurviving sepsis patients than in controls. Importantly, we also observed that IL-18 levels were significantly increased in patients with lethal sepsis compared with sepsis survivors at all time points studied, including day 1 after sepsis diagnosis. IL-18 levels were significantly increased during the course of lethal sepsis, but remained at a comparable level in sepsis survivors. Logistic regression analysis of IL-18 values measured on days 1 or 2 of sepsis revealed that high serum IL-18 represents an early predictive factor for the lethal outcome of postoperative sepsis. Consistent with previous work in mouse models, our results suggest that IL-12 may contribute to protective immune reactions against a septic challenge, whereas IL-18 may preferentially promote organ injury and lethal shock.

High systemic CGRP levels were associated with lethal outcome already at the onset of sepsis, whereas high substance P levels were identified as late predictive indicators of lethal outcome. These results are consistent with the view that the neuropeptides, CGRP and substance P, may be involved in the pathogenesis of sepsis.

BackgroundMortality of patients with acute liver failure (ALF) is still unacceptably high. Available liver support systems are still of limited success at improving survival. A new type of albumin dialysis, the Hepa Wash® system, was newly introduced. We evaluated the new liver support system as well as the Molecular Adsorbent Recycling System (MARS) in an ischemic porcine model of ALF.MethodsIn the first study animals were randomly allocated to control (n=5) and Hepa Wash (n=6) groups. In a further pilot study, two animals were treated with the MARS-system. All animals received the same medical and surgical procedures. An intraparenchymal intracranial pressure was inserted. Hemodynamic monitoring and goal-directed fluid therapy using the PiCCO system was done. Animals underwent functional end-to-side portacaval shunt and ligation of hepatic arteries. Treatment with albumin dialysis was started after fall of cerebral perfusion pressure to 45 mmHg and continued for 8 h.ResultsAll animals in the Hepa Wash group survived the 13-hour observation period, except for one that died after stopping treatment. Four of the control animals died within this period (p=0.03). Hepa Wash significantly reduced impairment of cerebral perfusion pressure (23±2 vs. 10±3 mmHg, p=0.006) and mean arterial pressure (37±1 vs. 24±2 mmHg, p=0.006) but had no effect on intracranial pressure (14±1 vs. 15±1 mmHg, p=0.72). Hepa Wash also enhanced cardiac index (4.94±0.32 vs. 3.36±0.25 l/min/m2, p=0.006) and renal function (urine production, 1850 ± 570 vs. 420 ± 180 ml, p=0.045) and eliminated water soluble (creatinine, 1.3±0.2 vs. 3.2±0.3 mg/dl, p=0.01; ammonia 562±124 vs. 1382±92 μg/dl, p=0.006) and protein-bound toxins (nitrate/nitrite 5.54±1.57 vs. 49.82±13.27 μmol/l, p=0.01). No adverse events that could be attributed to the Hepa Wash treatment were observed.ConclusionsHepa Wash was a safe procedure and improved multiorgan system failure in pigs with ALF. The survival benefit could be the result of ameliorating different organ functions in association with the detoxification capacity of water soluble and protein-bound toxins.