Do you know how many patients with chronic liver disease exist in China? About 400 million people!
This includes multiple types of viral hepatitis, fatty liver, alcoholic liver, cirrhosis, and cancerous disease. Many people mistakenly believe that cirrhosis is an independent disease, but it is not.
The so-called cirrhosis of the liver is a pathological manifestation of the development of one or more chronic liver diseases to the middle and late stages, due to repeated damage to liver cells, which eventually cause liver fibrosis, liver deformation and hardening!
In the early stages of cirrhosis, patients may not show any symptoms due to the extremely compensatory capacity of the liver. However, with the continuous development of cirrhosis, liver function will continue to decline, and patients can enter the decompensated period of cirrhosis, with multiple symptoms, such as portal hypertension, hypoproteinemia, sodium and water retention, etc., and then develop hepatic ascites!
The so-called hepatic ascites, also known clinically as intra-abdominal effusion, is not a separate disease, but a common clinical manifestation of the end-stage of liver disease. Once liver disease progresses to the stage of ascites, it often means that the liver has completely entered the decompensated period, and if there is no active intervention in treatment, the prognosis is extremely poor.
So the question is, what are the symptoms of hepatic ascites?
1. Abdominal bulge
Ascites, which refers to excessive accumulation of free fluid in the abdominal cavity, is a sign of a disease. Usually, intraperitoneal fluid exceeds 200 ml or more to diagnose an intraperitoneal effusion.
As the amount of ascites increases, patients can observe on their own that the abdomen gradually bulges and bulges, and the abdominal wall is tight and shiny, like a frog's belly. Enlarged abdominal cavity will not only cause a sharp increase in waist circumference, but also affect the patient's life and living, for example, patients tend to have difficulty walking;
2. Abdominal pain
When liver disease is combined with ascites, symptoms such as pain in the liver area and abdominal pain often occur.
Usually, the cause of pain in the liver area is that the excess liver is hyperemic, enlarged, deformed, or the foreign body in the liver continues to grow, which involves the surface of the liver envelope, resulting in the extreme opening of the envelope, and there is a feeling of swelling and pain in the liver area. The pain in the whole abdomen is related to the fact that hepatic ascites compresses peripheral nerve tissues, organs, and causes peritonitis;
3. Edema
From a scientific point of view, hepatic ascites is actually one of the manifestations of hepatic edema, which is due to the emergence of severe liver disease, resulting in hypoproteinemia, portal hypertension and other problems, and then developed into a decrease in colloidal osmolality and circulatory disorders.
Patients not only develop ascites, but are also affected by these factors, ascites compression, and patients are often accompanied by concave edema of both lower extremities;
4. Gastrointestinal bleeding
After cirrhosis of the liver with ascites, patients often have problems such as portal hypertension and varicose veins of the esophagus and gastric floor. If the patient is not treated in time and eats hard, it may cause venous rupture and bleeding. In the case of small bleeding, it is mostly manifested as black tarry stool.
However, if the amount of bleeding is large and the patient has coagulation disorders, there may be gastrointestinal bleeding and the patient may vomit bright red blood. Once cirrhosis is combined with gastrointestinal bleeding, the patient can die due to excessive blood loss if the rescue is not timely.
All in all, the most typical manifestations of ascites are abdominal bulge, abdominal pain, edema and so on. When liver disease is combined with ascites, it often means that the patient's condition has reached the middle and late stages, or even the end stage.
However, fortunately, there are clinical ways to treat ascites, if the hepatic ascites can be detected early. Actively cooperate with doctors for treatment, and the patient's condition can also be effectively controlled. Therefore, patients with liver disease should actively cooperate with doctors for treatment and regularly conduct relevant review.