Your liver is one of the most important organs of your body and its main functions amongst others are to detoxify the blood, aid food digestion and store sugars for later use. But when your liver doesn’t function properly, your whole body is affected. Infections, alcohol abuse, and genetics can lead to liver failure and damage. Liver failure can be a life-threatening disease. Damage to the liver happens through several stages, requiring liver transplant in India. It is important to catch the disease in the initial stages to treat it successfully. Let’s know about the stages of liver disease.
Inflammation
Inflammation is the first sign of liver damage that your immune system is responding to foreign substances such as too many toxins. Excess fat in the liver, too many toxins or a viral infection can cause your liver to enlarge. Sometimes with liver inflammation, people don’t experience symptoms. But if the upper right area of your abdomen gets hot and painful, it signals towards an injured liver. If at this stage, your liver disease is diagnosed and treated successfully, the inflammation may go away and liver damage can be reversed.
Fibrosis
If the inflammation is left untreated, it may lead the liver to scar. These scar tissues will then replace the healthy tissues and disrupt the liver function. This process is called fibrosis. As the liver functions stop, the toxins and fat will build up in the liver and the scar may block the blood flow to the organ. Fibrosis may be hard to diagnose as it may be asymptomatic. But if its diagnosed and treated successfully at this stage, there are chances that the liver may heal by itself over time.
Cirrhosis
When the fibrosis is not diagnosed and treated, it may lead to cirrhosis which is severe scarring of the liver. At this stage, the liver will keep losing its healthy tissues which may lead to liver failure and then the liver can no longer heal itself. Cirrhosis can cause a lot of complications including liver cancer. If the symptoms had not been evident earlier, it will be now. There are many symptoms of cirrhosis which will help to diagnose liver disease. The treatment of cirrhosis is to control the progression of unhealthy scarring and to protect the healthy tissues that are left.
End-stage Liver Disease (ESLD)
People with ESLD have cirrhosis that is generally irreversible with medical management other than transplant. Liver complications include hepatic encephalopathy, variceal bleed, kidney impairment, ascites, and lung issues. Patients with ESLD are usually prioritized on the transplant list.
Liver Cancer
The liver has now lost all ability to function and is unable to heal. Liver cancer is the development and multiplication of unhealthy cells. Cancer that starts in the liver is primary liver cancer. Cirrhosis and Hepatitis B are the leading risk factors for liver cancer.
Liver Failure
Liver failure is a life-threatening condition that demands immediate medical care, and at times liver transplant in India. As failure progresses, symptoms become more serious. The patient may be confused and disoriented and there is a high risk of coma and death.
