What are the symptoms of acute liver injury?

The liver is an important organ in our body. In life, it can be damaged by many reasons. The liver damage that people usually talk about includes acute liver damage or chronic liver failure. There are many causes of acute liver damage. In many cases, when acute liver damage occurs, obvious symptoms will appear within 72 hours. When symptoms appear, patients must go to the hospital for examination and treatment in time.

Symptoms of acute liver injury

1. The external causes of liver damage are mainly due to some accidents, which cause liver damage. The severity of the injury is different, and the symptoms are also different. If it is a true liver laceration, the patient will be pale, with cold hands and feet, cold sweat, a rapid pulse, and then a drop in blood pressure. If it is a subcapsular laceration of the liver, there will most likely be a subcapsular hematoma. When the injury is not serious, the clinical manifestations are atypical, with only distension and pain in the liver area or right upper abdomen, tenderness in the right upper abdomen, percussion pain in the liver area, and a tender liver. There is no hemorrhagic shock and obvious peritoneal irritation signs. If secondary infection occurs, an abscess will form. In addition, central liver laceration will form a hematoma deep in the liver, and the symptoms are also atypical. If there is also intrahepatic bile duct laceration, blood will flow into the bile duct and duodenum, manifesting as paroxysmal biliary colic and upper gastrointestinal bleeding.

2. The above are symptoms of liver damage caused by external factors. There are also symptoms of liver damage caused by hepatitis. When the hepatitis virus replicates in the body, it will stimulate the body's immunity to produce an immune response. The body's immune system will attack the liver cells carrying the virus, causing liver cell death, thereby causing liver damage. The main manifestations of patients in this situation are fatigue, loss of appetite, anorexia, nausea, and vomiting. Severe patients will experience dull pain in the liver area.

Causes of liver damage

1. Viral infection

Some patients are infected with multiple hepatitis viruses, which are highly contagious, have complex transmission routes, are widely prevalent, and have a high incidence rate.

Currently, viral hepatitis is mainly divided into five types: hepatitis A, B, C, D and E. In recent years, hepatitis F and hepatitis G have also been discovered.

Among them, hepatitis A and hepatitis E are acute hepatitis, which is transmitted through the fecal-oral route, which is commonly known as "disease enters the body through the mouth."

2. Drugs or chemical poisons

Many drugs and chemical poisons can cause liver damage, resulting in drug-induced hepatitis or toxic hepatitis.

The extent of damage to the liver depends on the duration of drug or chemical exposure or the dose taken, as well as individual predisposition differences.

Long-term use or repeated exposure to drugs and chemical poisons can lead to chronic hepatitis and even cirrhosis.

3. Alcoholism

Long-term drinking is one of the important causes of liver damage. Many patients suffer from liver damage due to long-term excessive drinking. Alcohol damage to the liver is relatively serious. The consequences of the damage include alcoholic hepatitis and alcoholic cirrhosis, which are mainly due to the direct damage to liver cells caused by the toxicity of alcohol (ethanol) and its metabolite acetaldehyde.