Essay On Liver Failure

As the Directors at the Sharp Rees Medical Facility, we will be talking about the liver. The liver is a very important organ in the human body as it does not just perform one function but is involved in multiple tasks. Some interesting facts about the liver; it weighs under five pounds, it has a shape like a half football and everyone is born with one. Just like most other disease or disorder, if the liver has not been taken care of properly there are many negative outcomes that can affect and destroy the liver. There are many complications when the liver is abused or damage for example cancer, hemochromatosis, gallbladder or

One of these symptoms is jaundice, which is characterized by yellowish skin and eyes because of an inability of the liver to remove bilirubin from the blood. Patient with cirrhosis also suffering from itching, due to deposited bile's products in the skin. This patient also suffers from accumulation of fluid in legs that is called edema. As a result of the blockage of blood flow via the liver, fluid accumulation in abdomen which is worsen by the decrease in protein production. Other symptoms include fatigue, weakness, loss of appetite, weight loss and nausea. As the disease progress, complications may develop ,such as varices that happens with cirrhosis patient when the blood flow through the liver slows, so the blood from intestine go back to the vessels of the stomach and esophagus, these vessels are not meant to carry this much of blood so they dilate (varices), with increasing

Cirrhosis is the eighth leading cause of death in the United States and the thirteenth leading cause of death worldwide.1 Cirrhosis is the irreversible fibrosis of the liver characterized by hepatic architectural distortion secondary to fibrous tissue and the formation of regenerative nodules.2 These anatomical changes cause hepatic vascular resistance and an increase in blood flow leading to portal hypertension. Porto-systemic collaterals develop in order to overcome the increased portal pressure gradient.3 Nitric oxide, an endogenous vasodilator is also released in effort to overcome portal pressure with the expense of causing systemic vasodilation and a decrease in blood pressure. As a result, a marked activation of neurohumoral vasoactive factors occurs in an effort to maintain an effective arterial blood pressure. Hypervolemia, increased cardiac index, decreased systemic vascular resistance, and systemic hypotension are manifestations of portal hypertension.3 Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), alcoholism, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) are all major causes of cirrhosis.

According to the American Liver Foundation, a healthy liver cleans blood, fights infection processes food and stores energy. The liver is able to regenerate itself, but when it becomes too damaged or is prevented from regenerating, it will fail and no longer be able to keep able to keep one alive (2015). Despite its ability to regenerate, chronic liver disease and cirrhosis is the twelfth leading cause of death of death in the United States. My interest in further exploring liver related deaths is the due to the impact that liver disease has had on my family. My young cousin was born with a malignant tumor on her liver and spent the first several years of her life undergoing surgeries and chemotherapy. She survived the treatment and at the age of 4 was free of cancer. At the age of 24 she was told that her liver was beginning the process of failure and she would need to be put on the transplant liver for long-term survival. My grandmother died of cirrhosis of the liver and my father, after 3 years of treatment for melanoma, was diagnosed with liver failure. He had a procedure to prolong the useful life of his liver, but the damage to his liver will not allow his liver to regenerate and it will likely be liver failure which leads to his death.

It is very important to follow your doctor’s directions and the directions on the medicine label.” The signs and symptoms of liver damage are hard to recognize right away because they appear over time. The early symptoms of liver damage such as loss of appetite, nausea, and vomiting can be easily mistaken for other illnesses such as the flu. According to the United States FDA, liver damage can develop into liver failure or death over several days (U.S. Food and Drug Administration

The reason of weight loss like nine kilos is attributed to his lack of appetite (Du, Pan, & Li, 2010). Liver damage has intense and disturbing effects on metabolism of all nutrients like malnutrition which is common among with patients with cirrhosis that also affects major impairment in their social, occupational functioning and behavioral and psychological changes (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism [NIAAA], 2005).

Many patients believed that they can take responsibility for their own health and even when you can do something to improve your health always some good medical opinion is always valuable. If you’re taking any medications or even vitamin’s we advise you to see your doctors to see if those pills are the best for you. It is important to research data on the medications that we are taking and if this are regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). We don’t want to hard your liver more. Instead of, we can find alternative ways to take care of your liver and one way will be see if you’re taking something that can harm your liver. In addition, is very important to stop the consumption of alcohol because that can cause you to be more prone to some diseases. In your case, it can cause more damages to your liver and lead you to unfortunately consequences. Moreover, your medical history tell us that one of your parents had hepatitis before past away. This can be one factor to consider in your health based on your recent damage to your liver. It is important to look for signs that can tell us if you had this

Fulminant hepatic failure is also called "FHF" or acute liver failure. The word "hepatic" refers to the liver; "fulminant" means to strike suddenly. It happens when liver cells are injured and die. These liver cells are replaced by scar tissue instead of normal liver cells; this continues until there are not enough liver cells to do their job. Not only does fulminant hepatic failure interfere with liver function; it also has secondary effects on other organ systems. It can affect the brain, causing encephalopathy within two to twelve weeks.

Every year people from different age groups are diagnosed with cirrhosis or any other disease in the United States. Liver is an important organ just like the rest of the organs inside our body especially for the digestive system. The liver has to be healthy to do many important functions for example, blood clotting, digesting food using bile duct, and many more duties. People may develop cirrhosis differently because their bodies react very different on how it may develop. Developing the disease cirrhosis in the liver will weaken the body and how it is not going to function properly anymore. Scarring tissue usually develops in the liver and because of the worn out tissue it will not allow the blood flow for the liver to work. Cirrhosis affects the body in which in some cases leads to the development in liver cancer later on in life or any other disease. When cirrhosis sometimes takes its toll really fast in the liver then that is definitely a different story. Cirrhosis starts with a cause in which people develop signs and symptoms, receive treatment, they get tested to confirm the disease, and there are preventions for those people who do not want to develop cirrhosis in the near future.

Chronic hepatic decompensation is observed in patients with end stage cirrhosis, which is potentially induced by a number of different factors such as alcohol, viruses (hepatitis), autoimmune diseases, genetic disorders and drugs. Decompensated cirrhosis can be identified by its physical manifestations, these consist of jaundice, encephalopathy portal hypertension and intracranial pressure. The nature of the liver failure is used to tailor treatment to fit the needs of the individual, different approaches are taken to different forms of the disease. Non-biological liver support devices, known as artificial liver support (ALS) devices, aim to remove water soluble and albumin-bound toxins that cause problems, due to a lack of or reduced liver function. The most widely used devices are currently devices utilising haemodialysis with albumin dialysis (MARS) or plasma separation and filtration (Prometheus). These devices have been proven to be safe and to reduce clinical symptoms associated with liver disease, for example a reduction in jaundice, reducing portal hypertension, reducing intracranial pressure and improvement of hepatic encephalopathy. Although there are benefits for the person affected, the

There are many different causes for liver damage and disease, and mild cases may not exhibit any symptoms or warning signals until months of damage has been done. As the liver damage or disease progresses, some indicators become more obvious. Your liver can be damaged by habits such as drinking alcoholic beverages all too often, or from taking medications that contain acetaminophen for many years. It depends on how sensitive your liver and internal system are and how long you have been possibly putting substances in your body that just don’t mesh well with the liver.

Even though the liver has the ability to react to damage and can repair itself, repetitive insults can produce liver failure or deadly diseases, infections, and disorders. A few such diseases are viral hepatitis, yellow fever, and rubella. Some of the disease caused by bacteria are amebic dysentery, leptospirosis, and streptococcal infections. These diseases can fatally damage the liver.

"Many alcoholics exhibit swollen and tender livers. The prolonged use of large amounts of alcoholism without adequate diet may cause serious liver damage, such as

Acute liver failure is a syndrome characterized by development of altered mental status and coagulopathy in a patient within 8 weeks of onset of liver injury [1]. A large number of inflammatory markers have been implicated in causing the liver injury; and the massive hepatic insult that occur is believed mainly due to this tissue inflammation rather than the disease process per se. It is caused by a group of hepatotropic viruses (A, B, C, D and E. Acute liver failure is the most fatal complication of acute infection of the liver by hepatotropic viruses (Hepatitis A to E). In India, the most common viruses involved in Acute liver failure are hepatitis E followed by hepatitis B [2]. Interleukin (IL)-10 is an important immunoregulatory

The most common reason for needing a liver transplant, in both adults and adolescents, is acute liver failure (ALF), which is defined by Maryam Moini as “the rapid onset of liver dysfunction characterized by mental deterioration and coagulopathy in a patient without pre-existing liver disease”(1). Acute liver failure is a rare condition which occurs in between 1 and 8 per 1 million people annually (1). This is most commonly caused by infection,