Overview
What is liver disease?
Liver disease is any disturbance of liver function that causes illness. The liver is responsible for many critical functions within the body and should it become diseased or injured, the loss of those functions can cause significant damage to the body. Liver disease is also referred to as hepatic disease.
Liver disease is a broad term that covers all the potential problems that may occur to cause the liver to fail to perform its designated functions. Usually, more than 75% or three quarters of liver tissue needs to be affected before decrease in function occurs.
The liver the largest solid organ in the body; and is also considered a gland because among its many functions, it makes and secretes bile. The liver is located in the upper right portion of the abdomen protected by the rib cage. It has two main lobes that are made up of tiny lobules. The liver cells have two different sources of blood supply. The hepatic artery supplies oxygen rich blood that is pumped from the heart, while the portal vein supplies nutrients from the intestine and the spleen.
Normally, veins return blood from the body to the heart, but the portal vein allows chemicals from the digestive tract to enter the liver for "detoxification" and filtering prior to entering the general circulation. The portal vein also efficiently delivers the chemicals and proteins that liver cells need to produce the proteins, cholesterol, and glycogen required for normal body activities.
As part of its function, the liver makes bile, a fluid that contains among other substances, water, chemicals, and bile acids (made from stored cholesterol in the liver). Bile is stored in the gallbladder and when food enters the duodenum (the first part of the small intestine), bile is secreted into the duodenum, to aid in digestion of food.
Symptoms
Signs and symptoms of liver problems include : -
- Discolored skin and eyes that appear yellowish
- Abdominal pain and swelling
- Itchy skin that doesn't seem to go away
- Dark urine color
- Pale stool color
- Bloody or tar-colored stool
- Chronic fatigue
- Nausea
- Loss of appetite
Causes
Problems that can occur in the liver include : -
- Acute liver failure
- Alcoholic hepatitis
- Alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency
- Autoimmune hepatitis
- Bile duct obstruction
- Chronic liver failure
- Cirrhosis
- Enlarged liver
- Gilbert syndrome
- Hemochromatosis
- Hepatitis A
- Hepatitis B
- Hepatitis C
- Hepatitis D
- Hepatitis E
- Liver adenoma
- Liver cancer
- Liver cyst
Risk factors Symptoms
- Acute liver failure
- Alcoholic hepatitis
- Autoimmune hepatitis
- Cirrhosis
- Enlarged liver
- Gilbert syndrome
- Hemochromatosis
- Hepatitis A
- Hepatitis B
- Hepatitis C
- Liver cancer
- Liver cysts: A cause of abdominal pain?
- Liver hemangioma
- Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease
- Primary biliary cirrhosis
- Toxic hepatitis
- Wilson's disease
- Primary sclerosing cholangitis
Treatments and drugs
Treatment for liver problems depends on your diagnosis. Some liver problems can be treated with medications. Others may require surgery. Liver transplant may ultimately be required for liver problems that cause liver failure.
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