Cirrhosis of the liver is a severe pathology in the organ that causes the death of tissues and their replacement with fibers. The result of this replacement is the emergence of nodes of different sizes, which change the structure of the liver radically. Gradually, the affected organ ceases to function properly, which may lead to its complete incapacity in the future. This significantly impairs the patient's quality of life and can lead to death.
In this article, we will consider how much they live with grade 4 cirrhosis.
The main function of the liver is to cleanse the body of harmful substances. In addition, it synthesizes proteins, fats and carbohydrates, produces albumin and is involved in the digestion process. Liver pathology is expressed in the conversion of hepatocytes (liver cells), which threatens the entire human body.
Pathology Description
Liver cirrhosis is a fairly common disease in the world. Up to 300 thousand people die from it annually, and this figure is constantly growing. People with chronic alcoholism also have a large percentage of the incidence of cirrhosis, which occurs, as a rule, without pronounced symptoms. Men are most susceptible to cirrhosis, regardless of age (but mainly after 40 years). So, how many live with grade 4 cirrhosis?
Signs and Symptoms
In the early stages, it is quite difficult to determine cirrhosis, since in most cases the disease proceeds latently. It also happens that pathology is detected at the autopsy of an already dead person. But more often, symptoms do appear.
The early symptoms of cirrhosis include:
- Pain in the right hypochondrium, increasing after exercise, eating fatty foods and alcohol.
- Dryness and bitterness in the mouth, worse in the morning.
- Diarrhea and severe flatulence.
- Unreasonable weight loss, irritability and fatigue.
- Jaundice appears with postnecrotic cirrhosis of the liver of 4 degrees. How long do alcoholics live? Let's figure it out.
Additional symptoms
As the disease develops, symptoms also increase:
- The pains develop into colic, acquire a more intense, aching character, as a rule, a feeling of heaviness appears with them.
- Nausea and vomiting with an admixture of blood (this is caused by hemorrhagic syndrome in the esophagus and stomach).
- Itching of the skin caused by the accumulation of bile acid in the blood.
- Weight loss reaches a critical state (exhaustion). Muscles lose their tone up to atrophy.
- Jaundice indicates the last stages of the disease. At the initial stage, the whites of the eyes, palms and feet turn yellow. This is due to the fact that hepatocytes cease to produce bilirubin.
- Xanthelasms (lipid spots) appear on the eyelids.
- Thickening of the fingertips, redness of the nail hole.
- Swelling of the joints.
- Varicose veins on the stomach.
- Spider veins in the upper body.
- Angiomas on the nose and in the corners of the eyes.
- Swelling of the tongue, its bright color.
- Reduction of secondary sexual characteristics in men (armpit and pubic hair loss, breast growth, genital atrophy).
- Ascites (accumulation of fluid in the abdominal cavity).
- Unhealthy complexion, expansion of capillaries on the face, swelling of the salivary glands.
- Enlarged spleen.
- Insomnia, memory impairment and other signs of a nervous breakdown. These are symptoms of grade 4 cirrhosis before death.
Causes
The main causes of cirrhosis are:
- Most forms of hepatitis lead to the development of pathology in the liver.
- Long (from 10 years) regular intake of alcohol in large quantities. It does not depend on the quality and type of alcohol, but only on the presence of ethyl alcohol that enters the body.
- Autoimmune diseases.
- Extrahepatic obstruction, biliary tract disease, sclerosing cholangitis.
- Portal hypertension.
- Budd-Chiari syndrome and venous congestion in the liver.
- Genetic predisposition (the presence in the family of metabolic disorders).
- Intoxication of the body (industrial poisons, aflatoxins, salts of heavy metals and mushroom poisons).
- Taking medications that adversely affect the liver.
There is a type of pathology, namely cryptogenic cirrhosis, the causes of which are still unclear. It is detected in 40 percent of cases. The risk of the disease increases when there are several causes (for example, alcoholism and hepatitis). Regular malnutrition, syphilis, infections can also adversely affect the liver. How many live with liver cirrhosis of the 4th degree, many are interested.
Developmental stages
Four main stages of the development of cirrhosis are distinguished. Each is accompanied by its own symptoms and depends on the progression of the disease. The correctness of the therapy will directly depend on the correctly established stage.
The first degree is latent and does not actually manifest itself. If you diagnose it during this period, then there is a high probability of replenishment of the level of hepatocytes with drugs. For this reason, experts call this stage compensatory.
Although there are no clinical manifestations, even in the first stage, cardinal changes in the liver occur. In the absence of the necessary therapy, the disease will progress, which in the future can lead to organ dysfunction as a whole. The level of bilirubin in the blood rises, IPT drops to 60. The patient's well-being is quite satisfactory.
2 degree
The second degree is called subcompensated. It is characterized by even more severe liver dysfunction, as the number of dead hepatocytes increases. Symptoms manifest themselves more strongly - apathy, weakness, nausea, decreased performance, gynecomastia in men. That is, at this stage, the pathology developing in the body becomes apparent.
The albumin level in the second stage drops, and the IPT drops to 40. But even at this stage, timely treatment can bring the patient to remission.
3 degree
The third degree is much more dangerous than the previous ones. This is due to an abnormally small number of viable hepatocytes. Symptoms are growing, there is progress in liver failure. Jaundice appears, intense abdominal pain, ascites develops. A critical decrease in PTI and albumin is observed. This stage is also called terminal. With cirrhosis of the liver, 4 degrees of the photo of this disease are frightening.
Treatment of the third degree practically does not give positive dynamics, although the probability of remission is negligible, but there is. Therapy is possible only in a hospital setting. Complications of cirrhosis, which can lead to death, are also dangerous. The most terrible ones are liver cancer, pneumonia, peritonitis, hepatic coma and internal bleeding.
4 degree
Grade 4 cirrhosis is the last. Damage to tissues is so strong that the body can not perform its functions. Severe pain causes the appointment of painkillers, including narcotic drugs. You can’t even stop the development of the disease in the fourth stage.
Prognosis and treatment
The prognosis for liver cirrhosis of the 4th degree can be very different. If treatment was started on time, then the process of developing the disease can be stopped. In the prognosis, it is important to take into account the patient's lifestyle, his habits and associated diseases.
If the patient revises his lifestyle on the recommendation of a specialist, he strictly adheres to the treatment regimen in the early stages, seven-year survival and more than half of all cases. However, this applies only to the compensated form.
The prognosis of survival in the second stage of cirrhosis is about five years. Hepatocytes during this period become weaker, their number is reduced and liver dysfunction is indicated . How many live with grade 4 cirrhosis? A photo of this state is presented above.
At the fourth stage, the prognosis is even more disappointing - only 40 percent of patients live three years. This is due to complications incompatible with life.
Is a complete cure possible?
Patients are most often interested in the question of a complete cure for cirrhosis. Unfortunately, the answer is no, as modern medicine does not possess such technologies. Of the radical methods - transplantation of a donor organ. But this option is not suitable for everyone who is ill, and transplantation is far from cheap.
Despair, however, is not worth it, because in the early stages you can stop the development of cirrhosis in a medical way. In the later stages, doctors are sometimes given the opportunity to slow down the progress of the disease and prolong the patient's life. Thus, the only thing medicine can offer today is the containment and control of the disease.
Therapy is prescribed individually for each case. In the early stages, doctors try to get rid of the root cause leading to cirrhosis (hepatitis, alcohol dependence, taking drugs that inhibit liver function, etc.).
We figured out how much they live with grade 4 cirrhosis.