Contents:
- Medical Video: Abdominal Fluid Drainage Procedure - Liver Problems from Drinking
- Get to know alcoholic cirrhosis
- What are the signs or symptoms of alcoholic liver cirrhosis?
- Causes and risk factors for alcoholic cirrhosis
- How do you treat alcoholic liver cirrhosis?
Medical Video: Abdominal Fluid Drainage Procedure - Liver Problems from Drinking
The liver is a body organ that functions to filter out toxic substances that circulate in the blood, break down proteins, regulate sugar metabolism, help fight infections, and produce bile to help the body absorb fat. When a person drinks alcohol for a long time, the body begins to replace healthy liver tissue with scar tissue. This condition is called alcoholic cirrhosis.
Get to know alcoholic cirrhosis
Alcoholic cirrhosis is the most severe liver disease, which is associated with drinking alcohol. According to American Liver Foundation, between 10-20 percent of heavy alcohol drinkers will have the chance to experience liver cirrhosis.
Alcoholic cirrhosis is actually the final stage of liver disease caused by the habit of drinking alcohol. Initially, the disease that will be suffered by people who are addicted to alcohol is fatty liver (alcoholic fatty liver), then if this habit continues and does not make appropriate treatment, this condition develops into alcoholic hepatitis, and then becomes alcoholic cirrhosis.
However, a person can also have liver cirrhosis without ever having alcoholic hepatitis. In cirrhosis, liver cells are damaged and cannot regenerate again, resulting in the liver being unable to function normally again.
Stopping consumption of alcohol will not restore the function of liver cells that have been damaged, but only function so that damage does not spread. In addition, by stopping drinking alcohol immediately, it can increase a person's life expectancy with this condition.
Someone who has alcoholic cirrhosis and does not stop drinking, has a less than 50 percent chance of living for at least another five years.
What are the signs or symptoms of alcoholic liver cirrhosis?
Sometimes there are no obvious symptoms in liver cirrhosis. However, symptoms usually develop when a person is between 30-40 years old. Your body will be able to compensate for limited liver function in the early stages of the disease. As the disease progresses, symptoms will begin to appear.
Alcoholic cirrhosis can occur without a previous history of fatty liver or alcoholic hepatitis. Or, alcoholic cirrhosis can be diagnosed together with acute alcoholic hepatitis.
Symptoms of alcoholic cirrhosis are similar to other alcohol-related liver diseases. Symptoms include:
- Jaundice.
- Itchy skin (pruritus).
- Portal hypertension, increased blood pressure in blood vessels that move through the liver.
- Thrombocytopenia (decrease in platelet count), hypoalbuminemia (decrease in albumin in the blood), coagulopathy (blood clotting disorder)
Causes and risk factors for alcoholic cirrhosis
Damage due to repeated and excessive alcohol abuse can cause alcoholic cirrhosis. When liver tissue begins to break down, the liver does not function as well as before. As a result, the body cannot produce enough protein or filter toxins from the blood properly.
Liver cirrhosis can occur due to various causes. However, alcoholic cirrhosis is directly related to the habit of drinking alcohol.
People who drink alcohol excessively and continuously have a higher risk of alcoholic liver disease. Usually someone has been drinking a lot of alcohol for at least eight years.
In addition, women are also more at risk for alcoholic liver disease. Women don't have many enzymes in the stomach to break down alcohol particles. Therefore, more alcohol can reach the liver and make scar tissue.
Alcoholic liver disease can also have several genetic factors. For example, some people are born with a deficiency of enzymes that help digest alcohol. Obesity, a high-fat diet, and having hepatitis C can also increase the likelihood that someone will have alcoholic liver disease.
How do you treat alcoholic liver cirrhosis?
Unfortunately the liver that has been exposed to alcoholic cirrhosis cannot be treated and returns to normal. But still this condition requires treatment to prevent the disease from worsening and suppressing symptoms so as not to appear.
The first step in treatment is to help the person stop drinking. People who have alcoholic liver cirrhosis are very dependent on alcohol so they can experience severe health complications if they try to stop without being in the hospital.
Other treatments that may be used by doctors include:
- Drugs. Medications can be prescribed by doctors including corticosteroids, calcium channel blocker, insulin, antioxidant supplements, and S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAMe).
- Changing your lifestyle and diet.
- Extra protein. Patients often need extra proteins in certain forms to help reduce the possibility of developing brain disease (encephalopathy).
- Liver transplant. You will only be considered for a liver transplant if you have developed complications of cirrhosis, even if you have stopped drinking. All liver transplant units require someone not to drink alcohol while waiting for a transplant, and for the rest of their lives.
