Alcoholic cirrhosis symptoms, Specifics, Stages, Complications & Treatment

The liver fulfills an extremely important function for the human body. It filters the blood of toxins, breaks down proteins, and creates bile to help the body absorb fats. Alcoholic Cirrhosis is a disease caused by excessive alcohol consumption. When a person drinks alcohol heavily over the course of decades, the body starts to replace the liver’s healthy tissue with scar tissue. As the disease progresses, and more of the healthy liver tissue is replaced with scar tissue, the liver will stop functioning properly. After heart disease and cancer, alcoholic cirrhosis is the third most common cause of death in people aged 45-65 years.

According to the scientific piece, ‘Alcohol use disorder and the liver’ published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd., “alcohol use disorders (AUD) cause a range of physical harms, but the major cause of alcohol-related mortality is an alcohol-related liver disease (ALD), in some countries accounting for almost 90% of alcohol-related deaths. The risk of ALD has a positively correlated relationship with increasing alcohol consumption but is also associated with genetic factors, other lifestyle factors, and social deprivation. ALD includes a spectrum of progressive pathology, from liver stenosis to fibrosis and liver cirrhosis. There are no specific treatments for liver cirrhosis, but abstinence from alcohol is key to limit the progression of the disease”.

Unlike other serious diseases, alcohol-related liver disease (ARLD) does not cause any alcoholic cirrhosis symptoms until the liver has been severely damaged. This fact makes alcoholic cirrhosis a silent condition at the beginning, therefore, more dangerous than other diseases that can be easily detected from an early stage. This means ARLD (or alcoholic cirrhosis) is frequently diagnosed during tests for other conditions, or as we previously said, at a stage of advanced liver damage. If you regularly drink alcohol to excess, tell your General Practitioner, so that they can check if your liver is damaged.

Alcoholic Cirrhosis symptoms can include:

• Feeling Feverish
• Weight loss
• Loss of appetite
• Yellowing of the eyes and skin (Jaundice)
• Swelling in the ankles and abdomen
• Confusion or drowsiness
• Vomiting blood or passing blood in your stools

You may have no signs or symptoms of cirrhosis until your liver is badly damaged.

Early alcoholic cirrhosis symptoms may include:

• Feeling tired or weak
• Poor appetite
• Losing weight without trying
• Nausea and vomiting
• Mild pain or discomfort in the upper right side of your abdomen

There Are Three Main Stages Of Alcohol-Related Liver Disease (ARLD). Although There Is No Differentiated Appearance Of Each One In Most Cases Since There Can Be An Overlap Between Each Stage. These Are The Three Stages With Its Own Alcoholic Cirrhosis Symptoms:

• Alcoholic fatty liver disease: drinking a large amount of alcohol, even for just a few days, can lead to a build-up of fats in the liver. This is called alcoholic fatty liver disease, and is the first stage of ARLD. It rarely causes any symptoms, but it’s an important warning sign that you’re drinking at a harmful level. This condition is reversible, if you stop drinking alcohol for 2 weeks, your liver should return to normal.
• Alcoholic hepatitis: it is unrelated to infectious hepatitis, and is a potentially serious condition that can be caused by alcohol misuse over a longer period. When this develops, it may be the first time a person is aware they’re damaging their liver through alcohol. Less commonly, alcoholic hepatitis can occur if you drink a large amount of alcohol in a short period of time (binge-drinking). The liver damage associated with mild alcoholic hepatitis is usually reversible if you stop drinking permanently. Severe alcoholic hepatitis, however, is a serious and life-threatening illness. Many people die from the condition each year in the UK, and some people only find out they have liver damage when their condition reaches this stage.
• Cirrhosis: is a stage of ARLD where the liver has become significantly scarred. Even at this stage, there may not be any obvious symptoms. It’s generally not reversible, but stopping drinking alcohol immediately can prevent further damage and significantly increase your life expectancy. A person who has alcoholic cirrhosis and does not stop drinking has a less than 50% chance of living for at least 5 more years.

Death rates linked to ARLD have risen considerably over the last few decades. Alcohol misuse is now one of the most common causes of death in the US, along with smoking and high blood pressure. Life-threatening complications of ARLD include:

• Portal hypertension and varices: Portal hypertension is a common complication of alcoholic cirrhosis and, less commonly, alcoholic hepatitis. It occurs when the blood pressure inside your liver has risen to a potentially serious level. When the liver becomes severely scarred, it’s harder for blood to move through it. This leads to an increase in the pressure of blood around the intestines. The blood must also find a new way to return to your heart. It does this by using smaller blood vessels. But these vessels are not designed to carry the weight of blood, so they can become stretched out and weakened. These weakened blood vessels are known as varices. If the blood pressure rises to a certain level, it can become too high for the varices to cope with, causing the walls of the varices to split and bleed. This can cause long-term bleeding, which can lead to anemia. Alternatively, the bleeding can be rapid and massive, causing you to vomit blood and pass stools that are very dark or tar-like. Split varices can be treated by using an endoscope to locate the varices. A tiny band can then be used to seal the base of the varices.