Liver Cirrhosis - Symptoms, Causes, Stages, & Treatment

The liver is an essential organ responsible for regulating blood waste products, eliminating toxins, and generating energy. Liver cirrhosis refers to the late-stage scarring (fibrosis) of the liver mainly because of hepatitis and chronic alcoholism. This condition has the potential to block the liver from performing its daily functions in your body.

Are you concerned about this condition and trying to learn more about it? Then, you are in the right place! This article will give you a wholesome guide on the symptoms and treatment for liver cirrhosis.

Liver cirrhosis is a condition that replaces healthy liver tissues with scar tissues. It might wreck the liver with this procedure. Multiple types of diseases and conditions can injure healthy liver cells. First, it results in causing cell death and inflammation. The process is followed by cell repairing, and finally, the tissues are scarred in the process.

Thus, if you wonder what cirrhosis of the liver is, it refers to a condition resulting in scarred liver tissues, which ultimately block the liver from functioning normally. These scarred tissues block the blood flow through the liver, reducing its ability to process hormones, nutrients, drugs and natural toxins.

According to the researchers, people belonging to the age group of 45-54 years are most likely to get liver cirrhosis. Moreover, people addicted to alcohol are also at a higher risk of getting this condition. Additionally, being obese and having chronic hepatitis can also result in this condition in future.

The symptoms of liver cirrhosis mainly depend on the current stage of your illness. Usually, in the early stages, you can see the following symptoms. 

• Weakness or fatigue 
• Nausea and fever
• Loss of appetite
• Unintentional weight loss

On the other hand, in the advanced stages, the following signs and symptoms of liver cirrhosis are common.

• Quickly getting bruises causing bleeding
• Yellow tint to your skin
• Redness in the palms
• Itching in skin
• Fluid build-up in abdomen (ascites)
• Swelling in legs, feet and ankles
• Confusion, difficulty concentrating, personality changes
• Blood in stool
• Spider-like blood vessels surrounding red spots on your skin (telangiectasias)

According to the opinions of health researchers, you are likely to develop liver cirrhosis if you have other liver problems or diseases. It gets worse if left without treatment. The following list will give you a better idea of the causes of liver cirrhosis.

• Chronic alcohol abuse: Excessive alcohol consumption has the potential of causing liver damages, ultimately resulting in cirrhosis.
• Fatty liver disease: Obesity and overweight issues can result in fatty liver diseases. Such conditions increase your chances of getting cirrhosis.
• Hepatitis B or Hepatitis C: If you have these conditions and undertake regular medications for treating these, you might have a higher risk of developing liver cirrhosis.
• Bile ducts (biliary atresia): If you have this condition, the tubes carrying bile from the liver to the gallbladder are blocked. It can cause cirrhosis in your liver.
• Other issues: If you have conditions such as Cystic fibrosis, Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, sugar metabolism disorders, hemochromatosis, primary sclerosing cholangitis and other liver diseases, you might develop cirrhosis.

Liver cirrhosis is itself a late stage of liver damage. Initially, the process begins with liver inflammation, which results in cirrhosis if left untreated. Therefore, one might consider the following stages of liver cirrhosis for the patients.

• Stage 1: It involves scarring of the liver tissues. However, the symptoms are few and hardly consist of any health complications.
• Stage 2: This stage might result in blood pressure related issues, resulting in hypertension in the patients.
• Stage 3: It develops swelling in the abdomen, causing severe liver scarring. This stage includes decompensated cirrhosis, including serious complications leading to liver failure.
• Stage 4: In this stage, patients most likely develop end-stage liver disease (ESLD). It can be life-threatening, and a transplant becomes mandatory.

If you notice such symptoms and visit your physician for diagnosis, you might have to disclose your medical history and prescribed drugs. Apart from that, you can also follow the diagnosis process mentioned below. 

• Physical examination: Doctors mainly look for physical symptoms of cirrhosis in this. These include red, spider-like blood vessels, yellowing of the skin, bruises, redness on palms, swelling or pain in your abdomen, etc.
• Blood tests: If the doctors suspect cirrhosis, they will draw your blood and send it to a laboratory. Suppose it contains low albumin and blood clotting factors, increased liver enzymes and iron, presence of autoantibodies, high bilirubin and WBC count. In that case, it means your liver is facing damage.
• Imaging tests: Such tests are used to show the size, shape and texture of the liver. Moreover, these can also determine the scarring and fat extent in your liver and the fluid in your abdomen. These tests include computerised tomography (CT) scan, abdominal ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
• Biopsy: With this, doctors remove liver tissue from your body and examine it under the microscope. This test helps to confirm the extent of liver damage or enlargement of the liver.

Now that you know all about this disease, let us find out the treatment for liver cirrhosis. When you feel that your liver is starting to damage, you can begin treatment at home by avoiding alcohol consumption and maintaining a healthy weight with a healthy diet.

Moreover, you can also take medicine for controlling hepatitis infection. However, the doctors can undertake the following treatment procedure for the advanced stages.

Medication and Diet

As you know, liver cirrhosis comes with excess fluid and hypertension issues. For this, doctors perform upper endoscopy at regular intervals to analyse the enlarged veins in your system. Moreover, if you develop varices, doctors can also conduct a band ligation procedure to stop the bleeding. Additionally, they can suggest a low-sodium diet and medication if your body has excessive fluid. Apart from that, if you are suffering from influenza, pneumonia or hepatitis, you will need antibiotics before the treatment.

Liver Transplant Surgery

A liver transplant is often the only way out in advanced signs of liver cirrhosis. It is the procedure of replacing your damaged liver with a healthy one from a living or deceased donor. While this saves you from a damaged liver, you need to maintain a healthy lifestyle to avoid such conditions in the future.

Future Treatment

Scientists are working on expanding the current treatment procedures available for liver cirrhosis. As the condition comes with multiple causes and complications, there can be numerous approaches. Researchers are currently working on future treatments for this disease by reducing its complications.

You can prevent liver cirrhosis by reducing your risk of exposure to it. For this, the following activities can be helpful. 

• Reduce alcohol consumption: Excessive alcohol consumption is capable of damaging your liver. Even if your liver damage might have started for other reasons, it is advisable to quit drinking alcohol to prevent further damage, ending in cirrhosis.
• Maintain a healthy diet: People with cirrhosis often suffer from malnutrition, making it essential for them to include a healthy diet for daily intake, including sufficient fruits and vegetables. In addition, such diets should consist of lean protein, such as legumes, poultry or fish. On the other hand, salt can be a severe threat to people with a damaged liver. Thus, your diet should be a low-sodium one. Try to season the food with herbs instead of salt.
• Avoid infections: Chances of cirrhosis often make fighting against diseases difficult. Thus, it is advisable to take precautions against getting infections by maintaining hygiene, washing hands frequently, and avoiding eating outside the home. It would help if you also got vaccinated to prevent hepatitis A and B infections, influenza, and pneumonia.
• Use over-the-counter medications: You will have to take various drugs when suffering from cirrhosis or liver damage. However, your liver will naturally face difficulty in processing these. Thus, try not to take non-prescribed drugs, particularly aspirin and ibuprofen.

Therefore, liver cirrhosis is a life-threatening condition, and it is essential to take proper measures from an early age to avoid it in the later stages of life. This condition is the final stage of liver damage, which results from liver scarring because of other diseases, infections, or alcohol consumption. The treatment is a complicated one, mainly including liver transplantation.