Cirrhosis is the end-stage of a chronic progressive diffuse liver disease due to the long-term action of a variety of disease factors on the liver.
After suffering from cirrhosis, patients will have general weakness, loss of appetite, diarrhea and other uncomfortable symptoms, need to give timely corresponding treatment to control the condition, if the disease can not be timely and effective control, progression to the advanced stage, it is easy to induce some complications, these complications will pose a great threat to physical health.
So what complications are prone to occur in the late stages of cirrhosis? Take a look at this article.
Common complications of advanced cirrhosis include the following!
1. Varicose veins of the esophagus
Cirrhosis can easily induce esophageal varices, because in advanced cirrhosis, portal hypertension can occur, which will lead to the establishment and opening of the lateral branch circulation between the portal vein and the systemic circulation, which in turn will cause esophageal varices.
In the early stages of esophageal varices, patients generally do not develop significant symptoms of discomfort. When the esophageal varices rupture, the patient develops hemoptysis, and if the patient accidentally inhales this blood into the respiratory tract, it can also cause a risk of severe pneumonia or suffocation.
In addition, when this blood enters the gastrointestinal tract, it will dye the feces black. Varicose vein rupture is a very dangerous condition, and in severe cases it can be life-threatening and requires immediate treatment.
2. Ascites
Ascites is one of the common complications of advanced cirrhosis, due to the accumulation of fluid, resulting in an increase in the size of the abdomen, which can appear bulging.
When the patient lies flat, the fluid in the abdomen expands to the sides of the body, causing difficulty breathing when pressing the patient's diaphragm.
3. Portal hypertension
In advanced stages of cirrhosis, blood may accumulate in the fibrous liver, which can lead to portal hypertension.
Portal hypertension can cause varicose veins or varicose veins on the basis of the stomach, and may increase the risk of venous rupture.
4. Hepatocellular carcinoma
Hepatocellular carcinoma manifests as significant compression pain in the right upper quadrant, so for patients with cirrhosis, it is necessary to be screened for liver cancer to prevent the occurrence of liver cancer.
5. Hepatic encephalopathy
The most important complication of cirrhosis is hepatic encephalopathy, which disrupts brain metabolism in about 70% of patients.
The reason for this is that the patient's liver is too weak in its ability to detoxify, resulting in an increase in toxins such as ammonia in the blood, which in turn induces hepatic encephalopathy.
Depending on the symptoms, hepatic encephalopathy can be divided into four stages:
The first stage is when the patient feels drowsy, slows down, is emotionally unstable, slurred speech, and has difficulty concentrating.
The second stage is an increase in drowsiness, and there will also be a phenomenon of trembling hands and mental atrophy.
The third stage is that the patient sleeps a lot but wakes up frequently, is easily agitated, aggressive, and has obvious changes in electrical activity.
In the fourth stage, due to liver failure, the patient will be unconscious, will not respond to the stimuli of pain, and will have a sweet taste in the breath.
It can be seen that after the cirrhosis enters the advanced stage, it is easy to induce these complications mentioned above, no matter what kind of complications will pose a great threat to physical health, so we must prevent the occurrence of these complications.
For patients with cirrhosis, we must pay attention to the treatment standardized by the doctor, reduce the probability of complications, and if there are complications, we must also actively treat to reduce the harm.