Symptoms and treatment of liver diseases – no other organ in our body causes as many symptoms when it is diseased as the liver.
Liverdisease may be indicated by the following symptoms: jaundice, pain in the liver area, fatigue, drowsiness, itching, bleeding into the skin, a tendency to bleed, raised temperature, fever, bloating, abdominal pain, fluid in the abdomen (ascites), increased intestinal gas, musculoskeletal complaints, joint pain, neurological symptoms (nerve damage, confusion, irritability, coma, mental decline), menstrual disorders, impotence, gastrointestinal bleeding, weight loss, fluid build-up under the skin (oedema), rapid heartbeat, sweetish breath and taste disturbances.
The liverdisease also has varied external signs: yellow skin, spider naevi on the skin, redness of the soles and palms, a red, shiny tongue, thin, fragile skin, bleeding into the skin, white nails, clubbed fingers, watch-glass nails, yellowish cholesterol deposits under the skin, breast enlargement, feminisation of male breasts, dilated abdominal veins, abdominal wall hernias and palmar contractures.
The liverdisease can basically be treated in two ways: causal treatment, if the cause of the liver disease is known, and symptomatic treatment, which aims to relieve the symptoms caused by liver failure. Of course, in the treatment of liverdiseases, surgical (liver resection, liver transplantation), interventional radiology (alcohol injection, radiofrequency or thermal ablation) and oncological (chemotherapy) methods may also play a role.
