This is why it is important to know the early signs of liver disease andhepatitis(liver inflammation).
This is especially true if you haverisk factors for liver disease.
It also explains how liver disease is diagnosed and when you might consider screening in the absence of symptoms.
Illustration by Mira Norian for Verywell Health
Illustration by Mira Norian for Verywell Health
Could You Have Liver Disease Symptoms?
In the United States, this includes:
Where Is My Liver Located?
Theliveris the largest internal organ in the human body, roughly the size of a football.
The liver itself has no pain receptors.
With chronic liver disease, the stages can be broadly categorized asfibrosis, cirrhosis, and liver failure.
When the liver is involved, the inflammation is referred to ashepatitis.
However, with chronic inflammation, scar tissues can develop faster than new liver cells are produced.
The only indication at this stage may be abnormalities in blood tests used to evaluate liver function.
When fibrosis is severe enough to cause the loss of liver function, you are said to havecirrhosis.
This is the stage when symptoms start to develop.
Not everyone with chronic liver disease will progress to advanced disease.
Liver Failure
In rare cases, decompensated cirrhosis is partially reversible.
In most instances, however, decompensation is the gateway to liver failurethe end stage of liver disease.
This is the point at which the loss of liver function has become life-threatening.
With liver failure, severe complications will develop.
While efforts can be made to sustain life, aliver transplantis ultimately the only means of survival.
Cirrhosis can also increase the risk ofhepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common form of liver cancer.
A liver biopsy can definitively diagnose cirrhosis and how advanced the condition is.
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Sterling, VA: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism; 2022.
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.Chronic hepatitis.
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National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.Treatment for cirrhosis.
