How are the complications of cirrhosis treated?
How are the complications of cirrhosis treated?
Portal hypertension: Portal hypertension is mainly the result of chronic end-stage liver disease. Treatment consists of treating its many complications. Treatments of portal hypertension include:
- Giving beta blockers or nitrates to lower blood pressure in your veins.
- Cutting off blood flow through the varices to stop or reduce further bleeding with procedure using tiny elastic bands (band ligation) or with sclerotherapy.
- Redirecting blood from the portal vein to reduce pressure in the portal vein and to control variceal bleeding. This is achieved using either one of two techniques – distal splenorenal shunt or transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt.
- Prescribing lactulose to absorb toxins in the blood that result from hepatic encephalopathy, which cause symptoms including confusion and other mental changes.
- Draining excess fluid in your abdomen (ascites) in a procedure called paracentesis or taking a diuretic medication to decrease extra fluids (edema) in your legs and other areas of your body.
Bacterial peritonitis: Antibiotics and infusion of a protein (albumin) will be prescribed. Typically patients are admitted to the hospital for treatment and monitoring. Following a diagnosis of bacterial peritonitis, an oral antibiotic will be prescribed for daily use to prevent recurrence of infection.
Liver cancer: Treatment depends on the stage of your cancer and other factors. One or more treatments may be tried. Options include surgery to remove part of your liver or your whole liver (to be replaced with a new liver as part of a liver transplantation) and nonsurgical tumor-destroying methods including ablation, chemotherapy, targeted therapy (drugs zero in on cancer genes or tissue), immunotherapy and radiation bead therapy (inject bead that give off radiation into the blood vessels that feed the tumor).
Kidney failure: Treatment may include medication, dialysis and kidney transplant, depending on the cause and extent of failure.
Liver failure: Treatment depends on if you have acute or chronic failure. For chronic liver failure, diet and lifestyle changes include stopping alcohol and medications that harm the liver; eating less red meat, cheese and eggs; losing weight; controlling high blood pressure and diabetes and cutting down on salt.
Acute treatments for liver failure include intravenous fluids to maintain blood pressure, laxatives to help flush toxins from the body and blood glucose monitoring.
If you have either acute or chronic liver failure, your liver specialist may recommend a liver transplant. Liver transplants can come from a living or deceased donor. Only a portion of the donor liver needs to be transplanted. The liver is the only human organ capable of growing back.
Many tests are required of both you (the liver transplant recipient) and the person donating a portion of their liver or the cadaver liver (liver from a deceased person). If your doctors determine that you need a liver transplant, you will be placed on a national liver transplant waiting list, which lists patients by blood type, body size and severity of end-stage liver disease.