There are many different liverdiseases.[5][6] Liver disease can make someone very sick because of all the important work the liver does. People who have bad liver disease usually die unless they can get a livertransplant. This is when the liver from someone who has just died is put in another person bysurgery. Such surgeries are usually technically challenging but can be life-saving.
Thesymptoms of liver disease happen because the liver does not do the work it should.
The liver cannotmetabolize toxins and waste so these bad things stay in the blood longer. One thing that builds up is a substance calledbilirubin. When red blood cells die, thehemoglobin in them leaks into the blood. The hemoglobin becomes bilirubin (ayellow substance that makes bile yellow). The liver takes the bilirubin out of the blood and puts it into the bile. The bile goes into the intestines and then goes out with the waste from your body. If the liver is hurt, it does not remove the bilirubin, so the bilirubin stays in the body. This makes the person's body look yellow and is known asjaundice. So yellow eyes and yellow skin are symptoms of liver disease.
Other symptoms of liver disease are:
- Bleeding because the liver does not make enough coagulation proteins (to make clots)
- Swelling of body. If the swelling is of theabdomen it is calledascites
- Confusion and acting very tired because of the extra ammonia that the liver cannot metabolize
- Bleeding from big swollenveins in theesophagus calledesophageal varices. If these bleed, it can cause the person to die very quickly.
Hepatitis is when liver cells getinflamed (swollen, or increased in size). This can be fromvirusinfections. This can be caused by toxins orpoisons. The most common toxin to cause hepatitis isalcohol. It can also havegenetic, orautoimmune causes, when the body'simmune system hurts itself.
Cirrhosis is caused by death of liver cells that happens again and again. When the cells die,scartissue forms. This scar tissue damages the structure of the liver. This makes the liver not work as well. But it also makes thepressure in the veins that go to the liver very high. This high pressure makesesophageal varices. The most common reason for cirrhosis in the world is hepatitis B virus infection.
Some diseases cause bad things to build up in the liver.Hemochromatosis causes extrairon to build up in the liver.Wilson's disease causes extracopper to build up in the liver. Both of these diseases hurt the cells and can cause very bad liver disease that kills people.
You can also getcancer of your liver. This can bemetastatic cancer that came from some other place in your body. The liver is a common place to get metastases because it takes bad things out of the blood. So it takes cancer cells out of the blood and they grow in the liver. Cancer can also grow in the liver. If it grows in the liver it is calledhepatocellular carcinoma (liver cell cancer). Most hepatocellular carcinoma is from cirrhosis.
Some liver diseases can be treated easily with medicine. Hemochromatosis is treated by taking (removing) blood from patients at intervals (times) based on the seriousness of the disease in amounts about equal to what would be taken from a normal blood donor (~470 ml).
Some liverviruses can be stopped before they start. Two types of viral hepatitis can be stopped with animmunization.Hepatitis A andHepatitis B can be prevented with a total of five shots in a person's life.
Some liver diseases can only be treated by a livertransplant.
