What are the symptoms of toxic liver damage?

Toxic liver damage can cause many adverse injuries to the liver. Liver damage can be divided into different types, including acute toxic liver disease and chronic toxic liver disease. These problems will affect liver function, leading to symptoms such as fatigue, loss of appetite, and discomfort in the liver area.

1. Toxic liver disease is a disease in which chemical poisons cause liver damage. According to the degree of toxicity to the liver, hepatotoxic poisons can be divided into: ① Highly toxic type, including phosphorus, trinitrotoluene, dinitrochlorobenzene, nitrobenzene, carbon tetrachloride, chloronaphthalene, acrolein, etc. ② Highly toxic substances: aniline, hydrazine, tetrachloroethane, dichloroethylene, dichloromethane, chloroform, arsine, dimethylformamide, arsenic, antimony, mercury, selenium, etc. ③ Low-toxicity types: dinitrophenol, toluene diamine, dichlorobenzene, chlorobenzene, methyl chloride, DDT, hexachloride, benzene, ethylene, ether, organophosphorus, cyanide, acrylonitrile, lead, chromium, beryllium, etc.

2. The pathological changes of acute toxic liver disease are hepatocyte necrosis and fat accumulation , and the clinical manifestations are similar to those of acute viral hepatitis. A small number of severe patients may develop acute yellow liver atrophy. The pathological changes of chronic toxic liver disease are fat accumulation and fibrosis. The clinical manifestations are similar to those of chronic viral hepatitis. Severe patients may develop cirrhosis. In addition to discontinuation of contact and application of appropriate specific antidotes, the treatment principles are similar to those for liver diseases caused by other etiologies.

3. The clinical characteristics and severity of drug-induced liver injury can vary greatly, and are usually divided into acute and chronic types. Acute drug-induced liver injury includes acute hepatitis type, intrahepatic cholestasis type, acute fatty liver type and mixed type. Acute hepatitis type is the most common, and clinical diagnosis is somewhat difficult. On the one hand, the clinical manifestations it causes are not much different from those of viral hepatitis, and symptoms such as fatigue, loss of appetite, and discomfort in the liver area may also occur; abnormal liver function is also no different from that of patients with viral hepatitis.

4. On the other hand, due to the high prevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) in the Chinese population , these carriers are often diagnosed with hepatitis B once drug-induced liver damage occurs. Therefore, if the history of liver-damaging medication is not inquired about for patients with liver damage, it is very easy to miss or misdiagnose.