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Acute liver failure is loss of liver function that happens quickly — in days or weeks — usually in a person who has no preexisting liver disease. It's most often caused by a hepatitis virus or drugs, such as acetaminophen.
Your care team will ask you or your family questions to try to find the cause of your acute liver failure, including: When did symptoms begin? What prescription medicines do you take?
Causes. Liver disease has many causes. Infection. Parasites and viruses can infect the liver, causing swelling and irritation, called inflammation. Inflammation keeps the liver from working as it should. The viruses that cause liver damage can be spread through blood or semen, bad food or water, or close contact with a person who is infected.
Cirrhosis is usually a result of liver damage from conditions such as hepatitis B or C, or chronic alcohol use. The damage done by cirrhosis typically cannot be undone. But if caught early enough and depending on the cause, there is a chance of slowing it with treatment.
Causes. Alcoholic hepatitis is caused by damage to the liver from drinking alcohol. Just how alcohol damages the liver and why it does so only in some heavy drinkers isn't clear. These factors are known to play a role in alcoholic hepatitis: The body's way of breaking down alcohol makes highly toxic chemicals.
Hepatitis C is a viral infection that causes liver swelling, called inflammation. Hepatitis C can lead to serious liver damage. The hepatitis C virus (HCV) spreads through contact with blood that has the virus in it. Newer antiviral medicines are the treatment of choice for most people with the ongoing, called chronic, hepatitis C infection.
Acute kidney injury happens when the kidneys suddenly can't filter waste products from the blood. When the kidneys can't filter wastes, harmful levels of wastes may build up. The blood's chemical makeup may get out of balance. Acute kidney injury used to be called acute kidney failure.
The symptoms of toxic hepatitis often go away when exposure to the toxin stops. But toxic hepatitis can permanently damage your liver, leading to irreversible scarring of liver tissue (cirrhosis) and in some cases to liver failure, which can be life-threatening.
Hepatitis B is a serious liver infection caused by the hepatitis B virus (HBV). For most people, hepatitis B is short term, also called acute. Acute hepatitis B lasts less than six months. But for others, the infection lasts more than six months and is called chronic.
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, often called NAFLD, is a liver problem that affects people who drink little to no alcohol. In NAFLD, too much fat builds up in the liver. It is seen most often in people who are overweight or obese.