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Description of Business and Basis of Financial Statements	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2015
Accounting Policies [Abstract]
Description of Business and Basis of Financial Statements	Description of Business and Basis of Financial Statements Description of Business We are a biotherapeutic company focused on developing a cell-based therapy targeting the treatment of liver failure. Our product candidate, the ELAD^® System, or ELAD, is an extracorporeal human allogeneic cellular liver therapy designed to allow the patient’s own liver to regenerate to a healthy state, or to stabilize the patient until transplant. Since inception, we have devoted essentially all of our efforts to product development, clinical testing and pilot manufacturing and have not recognized revenues from our planned principal operations. In August 2015, we reported our VTI-208 phase 3 clinical trial of ELAD in alcohol-induced liver decompensation, or AILD, failed to reach its primary or secondary endpoints, although medically pertinent pre-specified subsets based on age and disease severity did show trends toward efficacy. Considering the results of the VTI-208 clinical trial and in an effort to focus our personnel and financial resources, we also discontinued our VTI-210 and VTI-212 clinical trials. We have begun to open sites for our new phase 3 clinical trial of ELAD, known as VTL-308, in severe acute alcoholic hepatitis based on our analysis of the results of the VTI-208 clinical trial. Our business, operating results, financial condition and growth prospects are subject to significant risks and uncertainties including the failure of our clinical trials to meet their endpoints, failure to obtain regulatory approval to commercialize ELAD and failure to secure additional funding to complete the clinical testing, development and commercialization of ELAD. Basis of Presentation and Consolidation The accompanying consolidated financial statements have been prepared in conformity with United States generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP, and include the accounts of Vital Therapies, Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiaries located in the United Kingdom (currently inactive) and China. All intercompany accounts and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation. We manage our operations as a single reportable segment for the purposes of assessing performance and making operating decisions.