Abstract: Objective To undersdand varies liver failure through analyzing the clinical characteristics and related factors affecting the prognosis.Methods 437 cases with varies liver failure treated in YiJishan Hospital of Wannan Medical Colleage from 1991 to 2006 were analyzed through the clinical characteristics and related factors affecting the prognosis.Results There were significant differences between the prognosis of acute liver failure (ASH) and chronic liver failure (CSH) .While there was a small difference between subacute liver failure (SSH) and CSH.There were many key factors affecting the prognosis of liver failure, such as age, total bilirubin (TBil) , prothrombin activity (PTA) , hepatic encephalopathy (HE) , gastrointestinal bleeding, complicated by infection, hepatitic-renal syndrome (HRS) .HBV was one of the most dominating factors.Hepatic encephalopathy is more easily occured in acute liver failure (ASH) .The most common complications of varies liver failure were HE and ascites.Conclusion The prognosis were different in ASH, SSH, and CSH.HE was the most common complication of ASH.ascites was the most common complication of CSH and SSH.The indexes, such as PTA, TBil were important sensitivity and specificity for the prognosis of liver failure.especially for patients with SSH or CSH.