All about types of liver failure

The liver is the second largest organ of the human body that performs vital functions for the body. Everything we eat or drink is processed by the liver and it produces energy and nutrients for the body. The liver filters harmful substances in the blood, such as alcohol, and helps the body fight infections. The mentioned items are only a small part of liver function. This part of the body plays a vital role in human life. In this article, we examine the types of liver failure.

What is liver failure?

When your liver is damaged, you may develop liver failure. In people with liver damage, the liver may eventually stop working properly. Liver failure is a serious disease that should not be ignored. Since the liver plays an important role in the production of hormones, digestive enzymes, bile and the metabolism of toxins and waste materials, any type of liver failure will result in many complications. When liver function decreases, liver failure has occurred. Have you ever used liver cleansing pills?

What are the types of liver failure?

Liver failure can be acute or chronic:

Acute liver failure

When acute liver failure occurs, within weeks or days the liver may stop working. This may happen suddenly without any special symptoms. Common causes of acute liver failure are as follows:

• Mushroom poisoning
• Drug overdose (even acetaminophen overdose)

Chronic liver failure

Another type of liver failure is chronic liver failure, which progresses more slowly than acute liver failure. It may take years or even months for symptoms to appear. The cause of liver failure is often related to liver cirrhosis. When liver cirrhosis occurs, healthy liver tissue is replaced by scar tissue. Liver cirrhosis is often caused by hepatitis C infection, excessive alcohol consumption, or nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

During chronic liver failure, the liver becomes inflamed and this inflammation causes the formation of scar tissue over time. In this case, while the body is replacing the scar tissue with healthy tissue, the liver gradually loses its normal function and will no longer function as it used to.

Cause of liver failure

Various causes are associated with liver failure:

Causes associated with acute liver failure

We said that one of the types of liver failure is the acute type, which may appear suddenly even if a person has no liver problems in the past. Acetaminophen overdose is the most common cause of acute liver failure. Acetaminophen is usually sold without a doctor’s prescription, but be careful that you should never use more than the recommended amount. The following reasons can be among the causes of acute liver failure:

• Taking some medications
• Using some herbal supplements
• Viral infections such as hepatitis A, B and C.
• Toxic substances
• Getting some autoimmune diseases

Also, if you have genetic liver disease, you are prone to liver failure.

Causes associated with chronic liver failure

Chronic liver failure is the result of long-term inflammation that will lead to scarring of healthy liver tissues. When the scar occupies most of the liver tissues, liver cirrhosis occurs. Other causes of chronic liver failure include:

Hepatitis C and acute renal failure

When a person is infected with hepatitis C, the risk of developing chronic liver failure or cirrhosis increases. In many cases, even before a person knows that he has hepatitis C, he suffers from liver failure. Hepatitis C virus spreads through blood. If the blood of a person with this infection enters your body, you will get this disease. Sharing needles is another way of hepatitis C transmission.

Excessive alcohol consumption

Another common cause of liver cirrhosis and subsequent chronic liver failure is excessive alcohol consumption. Usually, if a person has drunk a lot of alcohol for at least a decade, he will suffer from liver failure. The toxic chemicals in alcohol can cause inflammation in the liver and this swelling will eventually cause liver failure.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

It is normal for your liver to contain a small amount of fat. If more than 5 to 10% of the liver’s weight includes fats, fatty liver occurs. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is associated with metabolic syndrome, obesity and type 2 diabetes. This disease may cause inflammation and ulcers. Of course, in the early stages, it usually does not cause serious damage.

Other causes of chronic liver failure

The following causes are less common in the occurrence of this complication:

• Autoimmune hepatitis
• Diseases of the bile ducts
• Obstruction of hepatic veins
• Chemotherapy drugs
• Chronic heart failure
• Drug-induced liver cirrhosis
• Antitrypsin alpha-1 deficiency
• Hemochromatosis, which causes the accumulation of iron in the liver and other organs.
• Wilson’s disease, which causes accumulation of copper in the liver and other body tissues.

Be careful that in some cases the cause of chronic liver failure can be unknown.

Symptoms of liver failure

Now that you are familiar with the types of liver failure, it is better to know the signs and symptoms of liver failure:

• Yellowish color in the skin and eyes
• Loss of appetite
• nausea
• diarrhea
• tiredness
• Weight Loss
• Bruising or bleeding (which happens easily)
• Ascites or accumulation of fluid in the abdomen
• itching
• Edema or fluid accumulation in the legs

The symptoms mentioned above may be similar to some other diseases. Only a doctor can diagnose whether a person has liver failure or not. Some people do not show any symptoms until their liver failure is fatal. Be careful that as a result of liver dysfunction, even liver cancer may occur.

Treatment of liver failure

It can be said that the treatment of liver failure is exactly related to the stage of the disease. Pay attention to the following:

• If only part of the liver is damaged, the doctor may prescribe medicines.
• In some cases, surgery may be recommended to remove the affected area.
• If the damage is too severe, a liver transplant may be recommended.

For a detailed examination of the liver, the doctor often prescribes a CT scan or MRI.

A very interesting point is that if a healthy liver is damaged, it can resume its growth.

Ways to prevent liver failure

In order to prevent liver failure, you should work on its causes:

• To prevent hepatitis C, have protected sex (with a condom) and do not use shared needles for tattooing, etc.
• Avoid drinking alcohol.
• Be careful not to get non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Prevention of this complication is similar to methods of treating obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. In this case, you should lose weight by changing your diet and exercising so that the problem of fatty liver can be improved.
• Avoid using any type of medicine, whether chemical or herbal, without consulting a doctor and always pay attention to the dosage.

last word

In this article, we have described the types of liver failure along with their symptoms, causes, and ways of prevention and treatment. Early diagnosis of liver failure will help you to get treatment on time and restore your body health. Liver failure can be a silent killer because sometimes its symptoms appear when it is unfortunately too late.