Acute liver failure is a devastating condition with higher than 80% mortality. Currently the only successful treatment is orthotopic liver transplantation. The high mortality rate could be reduced if a system could be developed that could bridge the patient either until recovery (due to the livers well-known regeneration ability) or until transplantation. The CSIR and University of Pretoria (UP) have designed and developed a novel bio-artificial liver support system (BALSS) that utilizes a perfluorooctyl bromide (PFOB) emulsion as artificial oxygen carrier. A study was carried out to...