Cirrhosis Of The Liver Essay Research Paper

Cirrhosis Of The Liver Essay, Research Paper

The Three categories of disease are very different from one another. Communicable, Chronic and Degenerative and Hereditary and Genetic Disorders all have their own types of treatments and or cures and are all spread differently.

Communicable diseases are diseases caused by pathogens that can be spread from one person or animal to another these diseases. These diseases are also called infectious diseases. The easiest way to prevent the spread of these diseases is to keep a clean environment and wash your hands. There are cures for many communicable diseases too.

Hereditary and Genetic Disorders are not like the other types of diseases because u are predetermined at conception to have or not have them. Through your family history and genetics test of amniotic fluid doctors can tell whether an unborn baby has one. These disorders can ranges from slight retardation, to downs syndrome to even a higher risk for heart disease later in life.

Chronic and Degenerative Diseases are diseases that go on for a long time or return from time to time over a long period. Usually they can not be cured but many can be helped by medical treatment. Chronic diseases are also degenerative. Such diseases gradually lead to the breakdown of tissues and organs of the body. Cirrhosis of the Liver is a Chronic Degenerative Disease.

Cirrhosis of the Liver is the irreversible change in the normal liver tissue that results in the degeneration of functioning liver cells and their replacement with fibrous connective tissue. Cirrhosis can have a number of causes; the term is applied whenever the end result is scarring of the liver.

The most common type of cirrhosis is known as La nnec’s cirrhosis. Its primary causes are excessive and chronic alcohol consumption and malnutrition. The relationship between alcohol and cirrhosis is unquestioned, but the mechanism of injury remains unknown. Besides cirrhosis, the affected person may show jaundice, pneumonia, inflammation of the pancreas, or delirium. There is usually an increase in liver fat with this disease during the early stages; later there is little fat and total degeneration of the liver.

In the early stage, the disease can be stopped or reversed by abstention from alcohol consumption and an adequate diet. In this stage, the liver first enlarges; its outer capsule becomes smooth and stretched, and its color is yellow because of fat droplets. Fibrous tissue and extra bile ducts may develop. In the next stage, the liver is still fatty, but the quantity of fibrous tissue has increased so that the liver is granular. The blood vessels thicken and their channels may become obliterated, which reduces blood flow in the organ. Some persons die at this stage from coma, jaundice, infection, high blood pressure, and hemorrhages. In the advanced stage, the liver shrinks and the surface usually has a roughened appearance. The normal structure of the internal tissue is lost; there is no longer fat but only nonfunctioning scar tissue.

There are several other types of cirrhosis. Postnecrotic cirrhosis is the result of viral infection or of toxins such as carbon tetrachloride. Necrosis–i.e. Death of areas of tissue may develop quickly in these cases, a few weeks to months as opposed to years in La nnec’s disease. In pigmentary cirrhosis there is an increased amount of iron deposition in the liver cells because of a blood disorder, too much iron in the ducts, or an accumulation of iron from blood transfusions. The liver becomes granular and nodular, and its color is dark brown. The iron particles may be so dense as to obscure the cell and its function. There is fibrosis and there are sometimes fatty changes. In Wilson’s disease, a hereditary condition, there is excess copper in the liver. The liver usually turns green from bile in the tissue, and enlargement, fibrosis, fat changes, and abscesses occur when the disease is chronic. Syphilitic cirrhosis is indicated by large, soft lesions in the liver, which erode the tissue and eventually leave masses of scar tissue and fissures.

The final complications of cirrhosis are usually the same. There may be high blood pressure in the portal vein that can lead to hemorrhages in the spleen, liver, esophagus, and intestines; or hepatic coma may develop, in which the imbalance in blood chemicals from malfunctioning of the liver affects the brain. Hepatic coma usually starts with drowsiness and confusion and culminates in loss of consciousness. Jaundice may complicate any stage of cirrhosis. Edema–fluid retention in the tissues–and great abdominal swelling also are commonly seen.

Symptoms of cirrhosis are usually absent during the early stages of the disease. Occasionally, cirrhosis is detected during a physical examination when an enlargement of the liver, spleen, or veins in the upper abdominal wall is found. More often, patients develop symptoms related either to the failure of the liver to perform its functions or to complications caused by the circulatory changes that a cirrhotic liver imposes on the venous blood flow from the intestinal tract (portal hypertension). Thus, common symptoms include jaundice, resulting from reduced passage of conjugated bilirubin into the biliary tract; increased bleeding, from sequestration of blood platelets in a congested spleen; or the deficient production of short-lived coagulat