Your body is a marvel of carefully balanced chemical reactions, and every organ in the body has a part to play. The liver is no exception, and liver failure can be a life-threatening problem. Whether it is from long-term exposure to toxic substances, viral infections or even sudden poisoning, there can be many sources of liver damage. Knowing what can cause liver failure, and what treatments are available, can help you make the best decisions about how to care for your liver.
Your liver is a vital organ that helps by eliminating waste from the body, as well as helping to store energy until your body can use it. It also performs other functions related to metabolism and digestion.
Liver failure, simply put, is what it sounds like. It is possible for your liver to stop working entirely, leading to serious consequences for your body. All stages of liver disease can have profound effects on your health, but liver failure will lead to death if you do not receive medical intervention in a timely manner.
Liver disease is marked by a set of common symptoms, many of which are shared with other digestive issues. This can make accurately diagnosing liver failure difficult at first. For this reason, many people with early stages of liver disease are not diagnosed immediately. Your liver plays a central role in processing out toxins from the body, so the symptoms of liver disease can show up throughout the body.
There are many different things that can affect your liver, but the progression of damage will likely follow a similar path.
The speed at which your liver progresses through the various stages of damage will differ depending on the cause or irritation that is affecting your liver, but the general steps in the progression of symptoms will often be similar regardless of the pace.
Inflammation is the first stage of liver disease. At this stage, an irritant, either biological or chemical, is causing inflammation in the tissue of your liver. Typically, at this stage you may not yet know there is damage being done. As inflammation worsens, you may notice tenderness in the upper portion of your abdomen around your liver.
The area around your liver may be hot and painful as your inflammation gets worse. At this stage, treatment can bring about complete healing of the liver if treatment is begun in time.
Fibrosis is the next stage of liver disease. At this stage, chronic inflammation over a long period has begun to affect the liver.
The tissue damage from ongoing inflammation will begin to cause scarring in the liver.
