cirrhosis

What are the causes of cirrhosis of the liver and what are the complications of this disease?
In the case of cirrhosis or chronic liver failure, there is permanent damage and cirrhosis of the liver. Chronic liver failure progresses more slowly than acute liver failure, but its outlook is worse. Liver cell damage occurs slowly, so liver function slowly deteriorates and levels of essential substances made by the liver such as albumin and blood-clotting factors slowly decrease while toxic substances that normally would normally be destroyed by the liver accumulate slowly.

The fibrosis that occurs blocks the blood flow within the liver, causing high pressure in the portal vein (the main vein of the liver) and bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract.

Cirrhosis can result from many conditions, the most common cause in the United States and Europe is alcoholism and excessive drinking. Alcohol-induced liver disease begins with a buildup of fat within the liver cells. The condition progresses to the death of many hepatocytes through repeated periods or cycles of alcoholic hepatitis, and eventually leads to cirrhosis.

A range of other diseases that cause increased damage and inflammation to the liver can also lead to cirrhosis.

Examples include chronic viral hepatitis and chronic liver infections with (non-viral) microorganisms that are usually found in tropical areas, such as bacteria and parasites (the most famous of which is the schistosomiasis parasite), and a number of genetic diseases, including cystic fibrosis, anti-trypsin deficiency, and hyperchromatosis (increased blood color). iron buildup), and Wilson’s disease (copper overload).

Liver cancer and liver transplant

What is the feasibility of liver transplantation for patients with liver cancer?
Cancers that started in other organs, especially the gastrointestinal tract, breasts and lungs, often metastasize to the liver, where they begin to grow. The liver is prone to metastatic cancer due to its large size and the large amount of blood that flows through it. This type of tumor is subject to special programs under the supervision of oncologists.

As for cancer or a cancerous tumor that begins in the liver, it is called primary hepatocellular carcinoma, and it is now increasing in incidence globally. There are two types of hepatocellular carcinoma: hepatoma or hepatocellular carcinoma and cholangiocarcinoma. In these cases, the specialist doctor takes the necessary measures to determine the patient’s suitability for surgical operations, such as excision of the affected part or liver transplantation for such tumors that arise from the liver.

Advances in surgical techniques and post-operative care, as well as the emergence of more advanced methods of preserving donated organs, have made liver transplantation more feasible in the past 15 years.

However, the scarcity of donated livers means the death of a large number of people who are on the waiting list to receive new livers for them. It is often possible to obtain livers for transplantation from people who have died due to a head injury, and they are under sixty years of age, and they have healthy livers, and their blood type is compatible, as well as the size of the liver.

Today, liver transplantation extends life by more than 5 years in 70% of recipients. It is a delicate and arduous surgery and is recommended only for children and adults with severe liver disease that can be fatal or seriously life-shortening or progress to permanent brain damage.

At the same time, the patient (the recipient) must have a health condition that exceeds the minimum required to bear this physically exhausting surgery, and the subsequent period of recovery required after the operation. Children for whom new livers are transplanted are often born with deformed livers with incomplete formation.