MARS versus Prometheus – Comparison of two extracorporeal liver support devices

Introduction: Elimination of albumin bound toxins by extracorporeal liver support devices may be useful in acute and acute-on-chronic liver failure. We evaluated two devices commercially available, Molecular Adsorbents Recirculating System (MARS, Teraklin) and Fractionated Plasma Separation and Adsorption (FPSA, Prometheus, Fresenius Medical care) in a randomized crossover study. Methods: Seven patients with acute-on-chronic liver failure underwent alternating treatment with either MARS (M) or Prometheus (P) in a randomized cross-over design. Twenty-six consecutive treatments (13 M, 13 P) were available for anal…