An Overview Of Liver Cirrhosis

An Overview Of Liver Cirrhosis The liver is a dark reddish brown organ weighing about 3 pounds located in the upper right hand portion of the abdominal cavity. It is the largest compact organ in human body. The word cirrhosis stem from a Greek word meaning yellowish, tawny, that is the orange à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬ yellow color of the diseased lever. Verrill et al, 2008 describe the term cirrhosis as a broad church that include at one end biopsies with extensive fibrosis with normal numbers of hepatocytes, and at the other end, liver samples in which only isolated nodules of hepatocytes remain. Shibli et al, 2006 summarizes cirrhosis as an advanced stage of liver diseases due to an array of insults to hepatic parenchyma including infections, autoimmune processes, genetic disorders and toxins. Widespread fibrosis with nodule formation and interruption of normal hepatic blood flow is distinctive in liver cirrhosis. A healthy lever is important because it is involved in numerous complex metabolic functions essent ial to life. It takes out nutrients from the blood and processes them for later use. The liver manufactures bile used by the digestive system in assisting in the absorption of fat and certain vitamins. The liver is also critical in the removal of medications and toxic wastes from the blood stream excreting them into the bile. These can be harmful to the body. The liver serves as the main factory for blood proteins especially clotting proteins necessary for blood to clot. Clotting tests can be done to measure liver function. Lever cirrhosis is scarring of the liver due to inflammation and repair of injured and killed cells. According to the American College of Gastroenterology (www.acg.gi.org) cirrhosis is among the top ten leading causes of illness and death in the United States in adults of ages between 25 and 64. They further argued that the number of people suffering from cirrhosis will continue to escalate. The most common causes of cirrhosis in the United States are excess alco hol consumption and chronic infection with hepatitis B and hepatitis C (Larson, 2010). Other causes include fatty liver disease; drug induced injury, autoimmune diseases, bile duct disorders and inherited disorders. In some patients lever cirrhosis may be due to a combination of the causes, for example excess alcohol and viral hepatitis. There is also cryptogenic cirrhosis which is due to unidentified causes. The consequence scar tissue bands disrupt the normal structure of the liver. This affects liver blood filtering to the heart from the digestive system. The scar tissue causes increased resistance to blood flow through the liver resulting in a condition called portal hypertension. Portal hypertension is a process whereby high pressures develop in the veins that drain into the liver. Consequently the blood will return to the heart through alternate low pressure veins that bypass the liver. The liver is thus unable to either add or remove substances from the bypassing blood. Sympt oms of Cirrhosis The signs and symptoms of liver cirrhosis may be invisible or non specific at early stages. The non specific symptoms include fatigue and itching. Fatigue is a common symptom of cirrhosis. It is important to screen out other causes of fatigue that may have nothing to do with liver cirrhosis. Itching is also a common symptom of cirrhosis. Itching in patients with liver cirrhosis is due to bile duct disorders. Itching due to liver cirrhosis can result in itching over large parts of the body and can be severe. As liver function deteriorates, a variety of liver related symptoms may develop. A condition called Jaundice may manifest through yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes. Darkening of the urine and pale stool may occur prior to yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes. The yellowing is a result of accumulation of bilirubin in the blood stream. Bilirubin is a yellow orange colored compound resulting from breakdown of hemoglobin from red blood cells. Liver cirrhosis patients may also develop varices inside the digestive system resulting in digestive tract bleeding. Varices are abnormally enlarged veins. They do not cause symptoms unless they rapture and bleed. Vomiting blood or passage of maroon or black tarry stools may be an indication of bleeding varices. Esophageal varices bleeding are a medical emergency that requires emergency treatment. Other symptoms and signs of liver cirrhosis include development of mental slowing, confusion, excess drowsiness, and slurring of speech, a condition known as hepatic encephalopathy.