Taking care of one’s health ensures a better quality of life and longevity. In the human body, the liver is undoubtedly one of the most important organs. It is located in the abdomen’s upper right quadrant. In this article, we consider 7 signs your liver is dying. Later in the article, we have also discussed signs of death from liver failure.
In our bodies, the liver takes care of a host of functions. They include synthetic and metabolic functions. Identification of all warning signs of liver damage hence needs to be done carefully. This aids with a timely diagnosis in case there is any problem with the liver.
It becomes important for everyone to know that it is possible for signs of liver damage to appear at any time or place. When a related health condition is identified in time, managing it simplifies.
At any time when you come to feel that you are experiencing liver damage, you should be taking further action to ensure that further damage is prevented.
7 SIGNS YOUR LIVER IS DYING
1. ITCHY SKIN
Itchy skin is one of the most common signs of liver damage. A patient suffering from itchy skin could be suffering from obstructive jaundice. A host of pathologies could be the underlying cause of the effect. They include primary biliary cirrhosis, cancer at the head of the pancreas or bile duct, or stones in the bile duct.
In many cases, there are no skin lesions or rashes that are associated with the itching that a liver disease causes. Instead, infection, redness, and irritation are the more commonplace symptoms associated with the same.
2. SPIDER ANGIOMAS
One of the important scenarios, when you should be checking for liver disease, is when you come to see that you have developed small capillaries on your skin. At times, these capillaries could be spider-shaped.
This is a condition that you can expect to have when estrogen levels in your body are high. This condition implies that in the metabolism of your hormones, the functioning of the liver is improper.
In case you suffer from spider angioma which has been caused by cirrhosis or liver disease caused by alcohol, you are more likely to suffer from spider angioma.
3. FREQUENT BRUISING AND BLEEDING
If you bruise or bleed easily upon getting injured, it goes to show that there could be a problem with your lever. The condition may be caused because of insufficient amounts of specific proteins in your body, which are a must for blood clotting.
In such cases, you might notice blood drops below a bruise that lead to bruises. When the bruises initially appear, they could be purple, brown, black, or blue in appearance. Upon fading, they change color.
4. SWELLING OF FEET
In case you suffer from chronic liver disease, you could accumulate fluid in your legs which swells up the legs. The underlying cause of the same is high pressure in portal veins (ascites). This accumulates fluid in the legs (edema).
Alternately, ascites and edema happen when the liver is unable to produce sufficient albumin or other blood proteins. So, this is one of the most important among the 7 signs your liver is dying.
5. ASCITES OR SWELLING IN THE ABDOMEN
When one suffers from chronic liver disease, fluid could accumulate in the abdomen and lead to abdominal distension.
When fluid leaks take place from the surface of the liver, it leads to ascites, a condition where fluid builds up in the abdominal cavity. Ascites from liver disease is often associated with other symptoms of liver disease, like portal hypertension.
One of the symptoms of ascites is a swollen belly. Among the most common causes of ascites are:
- Liver cirrhosis, especially the type that is caused by alcoholism
- Alcoholic hepatitis
- Blocked hepatic vein
6. VOMITING OF BLOOD
When suffering from cirrhosis, a patient could develop blood vomiting which calls for emergency care. It is possible that when one suffers from chronic liver failure, the decline in health is slow. This is while a dramatic event takes place, such as passing bloody stools or vomiting blood.
When such an event occurs, bleeding takes place in varicose veins which lie in the esophagus. Similarly, for blood in stools or vomit, the stomach is the most common cause.
7. SLEEP DISTURBANCE
When one suffers from liver cirrhosis, the problem of sleep disturbances could become prominent. This comes in the form of insomnia and sleepiness during the daytime.
Suffering from liver cirrhosis makes one vulnerable to obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). The reverse is also true. If one is afflicted by OSA, the prevalence of liver cirrhosis is four times higher than in the general population.
Since blood has accumulated toxins, the sleep cycle gets disturbed and a patient could become comatose.
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We have discussed 7 signs your liver is dying. Keeping them in mind will aid with the timely diagnosis of a related health condition.
Let us now bring our focus to end-stage liver disease, which are the symptoms that a patient experiences before he expires.
SIGNS OF DEATH FROM LIVER FAILURE
The final stage of liver failure is end-stage liver disease. In this case, it is a terminal diagnosis, which implies that the condition leads to death.
In case a patient is afflicted by end-stage liver disease, it implies that the damage to the liver is in an advanced stage. At this stage, many liver cells are dead. Important structures in the liver have suffered damage which is beyond repair.
Since the liver can no longer carry on with its functions, the symptoms of the condition are severe.
The term “end-stage liver disease” is frequently used for the description of the following liver conditions. In medical circles, they are sometimes termed as signs of death from liver failure.
- Decompensated or advanced cirrhosis wherein damaged liver tissue replaces scar tissue
- Stage 4 hepatitis
- Chronic liver failure
THE FINAL SYMPTOMS OF END-STAGE LIVER DISEASE OR SIGNS OF DEATH FROM LIVER FAILURE
- Fatigue
- Itching
- Swelling
- Shortness of breath
- Jaundice
- Neurological symptoms
- Nausea
- Loss of appetite
- Easy bleeding and bruising
- Sleep disturbances
- Muscle cramps
- Changes in consciousness
- Mental health problems
