Isolated fatty liver from prolonged propofol use in a pediatric patient with refractory status epilepticus

Propofol is a widely used rapidly acting sedating or hypnotic agent in the intensive care setting. It is generally considered safe in both pediatric and adult patients and has been used frequently in cases of refractory status epilepticus. The formulation of propofol is highly lipophilic to facilitate central nervous system penetration and has a high fat content, and prolonged infusions have been known to cause both extrahepatic complications and hepatomegaly secondary to fatty liver. Whereas extrahepatic manifestations of prolonged propofol infusions have been well reported in non-neurologic intensive care patients, cases of pathologically confirmed fatty liver in patients with status epilepticus are relatively few. Furthermore, these cases of hepatomegaly and fatty liver have been also in the context of concomitant extrahepatic side effects. We report on a pediatric patient with refractory status epilepticus treated with a prolonged propofol infusion who developed isolated pathologically confirmed fatty liver without the usually reported extrahepatic manifestations.